`strncpy` is deprecated for use on NUL-terminated destination strings [1].
A suitable replacement is `strscpy` [2] due to the fact that it guarantees NUL-termination on its destination buffer argument which is _not_ always the case for `strncpy`!
It should be noted that, in this case, the destination buffer has a length strictly greater than the source string. Moreover, the source string is NUL-terminated (and so is the destination) which means there was no real bug happening here. Nonetheless, this patch would get us one step closer to eliminating the `strncpy` API in the kernel, as its use is too ambiguous. We need to favor less ambiguous replacements such as: strscpy, strscpy_pad, strtomem and strtomem_pad (amongst others).
Technically, my patch yields subtly different behavior. The original implementation with `strncpy` would fill the entire destination buffer with null bytes [3] while `strscpy` will leave the junk, uninitialized bytes trailing after the _mandatory_ NUL-termination. So, if somehow `pcm->name` or `card->driver/shortname/longname` require this NUL-padding behavior then `strscpy_pad` should be used. My interpretation, though, is that the aforementioned fields are just fine as NUL-terminated strings. Please correct my assumptions if needed and I'll send in a v2.
[1]: www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/process/deprecated.html#strncpy-on-nul-terminated-strings [2]: manpages.debian.org/testing/linux-manual-4.8/strscpy.9.en.html [3]: https://linux.die.net/man/3/strncpy
Link: https://github.com/KSPP/linux/issues/90 Signed-off-by: Justin Stitt justinstitt@google.com --- sound/xen/xen_snd_front_alsa.c | 8 ++++---- 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
diff --git a/sound/xen/xen_snd_front_alsa.c b/sound/xen/xen_snd_front_alsa.c index db917453a473..7a3dfce97c15 100644 --- a/sound/xen/xen_snd_front_alsa.c +++ b/sound/xen/xen_snd_front_alsa.c @@ -783,7 +783,7 @@ static int new_pcm_instance(struct xen_snd_front_card_info *card_info, pcm->info_flags = 0; /* we want to handle all PCM operations in non-atomic context */ pcm->nonatomic = true; - strncpy(pcm->name, "Virtual card PCM", sizeof(pcm->name)); + strscpy(pcm->name, "Virtual card PCM", sizeof(pcm->name));
if (instance_cfg->num_streams_pb) snd_pcm_set_ops(pcm, SNDRV_PCM_STREAM_PLAYBACK, @@ -835,9 +835,9 @@ int xen_snd_front_alsa_init(struct xen_snd_front_info *front_info) goto fail; }
- strncpy(card->driver, XENSND_DRIVER_NAME, sizeof(card->driver)); - strncpy(card->shortname, cfg->name_short, sizeof(card->shortname)); - strncpy(card->longname, cfg->name_long, sizeof(card->longname)); + strscpy(card->driver, XENSND_DRIVER_NAME, sizeof(card->driver)); + strscpy(card->shortname, cfg->name_short, sizeof(card->shortname)); + strscpy(card->longname, cfg->name_long, sizeof(card->longname));
ret = snd_card_register(card); if (ret < 0)
--- base-commit: 57012c57536f8814dec92e74197ee96c3498d24e change-id: 20230727-sound-xen-398c9927b3d8
Best regards, -- Justin Stitt justinstitt@google.com