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Re: Linux Kernel sctp_setsockopt() Integer Overflow


From: Michael Tokarev <mjt () tls msk ru>
Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 22:24:25 +0400

Shaun Colley wrote:
[]
Below is the vulnerable call:

---
if (NULL == (tmp = kmalloc(optlen + 1, GFP_KERNEL))) {
                        retval = -ENOMEM;
                        goto out_unlock;
                }
---

Because kmalloc() takes the 'count' variable as an
unsigned number, negative numbers are interpreted as
large unsigned numbers.  However, if -1 is passed as
'optlen' (represented as 0xffffffff (hex) in unsigned
variables, which is the largest value an unsigned
....
[]
And thus, due to the integer overflow, 0 is passed to
kmalloc(), causing too little memory to be allocated
to hold 'optval'.

But kmalloc(0) will return NULL, and the whole setsockopt
will finish with errno set to ENOMEM.

From 2.4 mm/slab.c:

void * kmalloc (size_t size, int flags)
{
        cache_sizes_t *csizep = cache_sizes;

        for (; csizep->cs_size; csizep++) {
                if (size > csizep->cs_size)
                        continue;
                return __kmem_cache_alloc(flags & GFP_DMA ?
                         csizep->cs_dmacachep : csizep->cs_cachep, flags);
        }
        return NULL;
}

So, where's the bug?

/mjt


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