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crypto: img-hash - Replace zero-length array with flexible-array member

PATCH In review Gustavo A. R. Silva 2 participants 2 messages Feb 13, 2020 – Feb 22, 2020 Crypto API

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PATCH 1/1 crypto: img-hash - Replace zero-length array with flexible-array member

The current codebase makes use of the zero-length array language extension to the C90 standard, but the preferred mechanism to declare variable-length types such as these ones is a flexible array member[1][2], introduced in C99:

struct foo {
        int stuff;
        struct boo array[];
};

By making use of the mechanism above, we will get a compiler warning in case the flexible array does not occur last in the structure, which will help us prevent some kind of undefined behavior bugs from being inadvertently introduced[3] to the codebase from now on.

Also, notice that, dynamic memory allocations won't be affected by this change:

"Flexible array members have incomplete type, and so the sizeof operator may not be applied. As a quirk of the original implementation of zero-length arrays, sizeof evaluates to zero."[1]

This issue was found with the help of Coccinelle.

[1] https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Zero-Length.html
[2] https://github.com/KSPP/linux/issues/21
[3] commit 76497732932f ("cxgb3/l2t: Fix undefined behaviour")

---
 drivers/crypto/img-hash.c | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
drivers/crypto/img-hash.c +1 -1
index 25d5227f74a1..0e25fc3087f3 100644
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ struct img_hash_request_ctx {
 	struct ahash_request	fallback_req;
 
 	/* Zero length buffer must remain last member of struct */
-	u8 buffer[0] __aligned(sizeof(u32));
+	u8 buffer[] __aligned(sizeof(u32));
 };
 
 struct img_hash_ctx {
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2.25.0
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Quoted 24 lines · Gustavo A. R. Silva

The current codebase makes use of the zero-length array language extension to the C90 standard, but the preferred mechanism to declare variable-length types such as these ones is a flexible array member[1][2], introduced in C99:

struct foo {
        int stuff;
        struct boo array[];
};

By making use of the mechanism above, we will get a compiler warning in case the flexible array does not occur last in the structure, which will help us prevent some kind of undefined behavior bugs from being inadvertently introduced[3] to the codebase from now on.

Also, notice that, dynamic memory allocations won't be affected by this change:

"Flexible array members have incomplete type, and so the sizeof operator may not be applied. As a quirk of the original implementation of zero-length arrays, sizeof evaluates to zero."[1]

This issue was found with the help of Coccinelle.

Quoted 8 lines

[1] https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Zero-Length.html
[2] https://github.com/KSPP/linux/issues/21
[3] commit 76497732932f ("cxgb3/l2t: Fix undefined behaviour")

---
 drivers/crypto/img-hash.c | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

Patch applied. Thanks.

Signature · 3 lines
Email: Herbert Xu <[email protected]>
Home Page: http://gondor.apana.org.au/~herbert/
PGP Key: http://gondor.apana.org.au/~herbert/pubkey.txt