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From: Leizhen Zhang <lzsx618@gmail.com>
To: nathan@kernel.org, nsc@kernel.org
Cc: linux-kbuild@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
	rostedt@goodmis.org, ljs@kernel.org,
	Leizhen Zhang <lzsx618@gmail.com>
Subject: [PATCH 1/5] elf-parse: avoid an undefined shift when checking the ELF type
Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2026 19:02:14 -0500	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20261019000218.3977398-2-lzsx618@gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <20261019000218.3977398-1-lzsx618@gmail.com>

elf_parse() takes a bitmap of permitted ELF types and tests it with

	type = elf_parser.r2(&ehdr->e32.e_type);
	if (!((1 << type) & types)) {

e_type is a 16-bit field read straight out of the file, so a type of 32
or more shifts by at least the width of int and the result is undefined;
31 shifts into the sign bit. All three users of the parser -- kallsyms,
sorttable and tracepoint-update -- reach this with e_type unvalidated.

Found by fuzzing the host ELF tools with mutated object files under
ASan/UBSan. Reproducer, on any vmlinux (or any ET_REL object for
tracepoint-update), setting only e_type:

  $ python3 -c 'import struct
  d = bytearray(open("vmlinux","rb").read())
  struct.pack_into("<H", d, 0x10, 40)
  open("t.elf","wb").write(bytes(d))'

  $ ./kallsyms --sysmap=/dev/null t.elf
  scripts/elf-parse.c:94:11: runtime error: shift exponent 40 is too
  large for 32-bit type 'int'
      #0 in elf_parse scripts/elf-parse.c:94

(host tools built with -fsanitize=address,undefined)

Reject a type that cannot be in the bitmap, and shift an unsigned 1 so
that a type of 31 stays defined. No valid object changes behaviour: every
ET_* value the callers put in the bitmap is far below 32, and a file with
a larger e_type already took the error path -- it just took it through
undefined behaviour.

Fixes: b055f4c431e3 ("sorttable: Move ELF parsing into scripts/elf-parse.[ch]")
Assisted-by: LLM ASan UBSan
Signed-off-by: Leizhen Zhang <lzsx618@gmail.com>
---
 scripts/elf-parse.c | 3 ++-
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/scripts/elf-parse.c b/scripts/elf-parse.c
index ce1c2a670244..9e7d1a4f263f 100644
--- a/scripts/elf-parse.c
+++ b/scripts/elf-parse.c
@@ -91,7 +91,8 @@ static int elf_parse(const char *fname, void *addr, uint32_t types)
 	}
 
 	type = elf_parser.r2(&ehdr->e32.e_type);
-	if (!((1 << type) & types)) {
+	/* e_type comes from the file and the bitmap only has 32 slots. */
+	if (type >= 32 || !((1U << type) & types)) {
 		fprintf(stderr, "Invalid ELF type file %s\n", fname);
 		return -1;
 	}
-- 
2.34.1


  reply	other threads:[~2026-10-19  0:03 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 9+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2026-10-19  0:02 [PATCH 0/5] elf-parse: validate what the host ELF tools read from the file Leizhen Zhang
2026-10-19  0:02 ` Leizhen Zhang [this message]
2026-10-19 12:47   ` [PATCH 1/5] elf-parse: avoid an undefined shift when checking the ELF type Steven Rostedt
2026-10-19  0:02 ` [PATCH 2/5] elf-parse: check that the section header table is inside the file Leizhen Zhang
2026-10-19 12:55   ` Steven Rostedt
2026-10-19  0:02 ` [PATCH 3/5] elf-parse: check the section indices that elf_open_ro() takes from " Leizhen Zhang
2026-10-19  0:02 ` [PATCH 4/5] elf-parse: check the symbol table before walking it Leizhen Zhang
2026-10-19  0:02 ` [PATCH 5/5] elf-parse: bound symbol names by the string table Leizhen Zhang
2026-10-19 12:57 ` [PATCH 0/5] elf-parse: validate what the host ELF tools read from the file Steven Rostedt

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