On Mon, Oct 16, 2023 at 10:25:07PM +0100, Sergei Trofimovich wrote: > Before the change linux allowed individual execve() arguments or > environment variable entries to be only as big as 32 pages. > > Histroically before b6a2fea3931 "mm: variable length argument support" > MAX_ARG_STRLEN used to be full allowed size `argv[] + envp[]`. > > When full limit was abandoned individual parameters were still limited > by a safe limit of 128K. > > Nowadays' linux allows `argv[]+envp[]` to be as laerge as 6MB (3/4 > `_STK_LIM`). See bprm_stack_limits() for the details, but yes, 3/4 _STK_LIM tends to be the max, unless the rlim_stack is set smaller. > Some build systems like `autoconf` use a single environment variable > to pass `CFLAGS` environment variable around. It's not a bug problem > if the argument list is short. > > But some packaging systems prefer installing each package into > individual directory. As a result that requires quite long string of > parameters like: > > CFLAGS="-I/path/to/pkg1 -I/path/to/pkg2 ..." > > This can easily overflow 128K and does happen for `NixOS` and `nixpkgs` > repositories on a regular basis. That's ... alarming. What are you doing currently to work around this? > > Similar pattern is exhibited by `gcc` which converts it's input command > line into a single environment variable (https://gcc.gnu.org/PR111527): > > $ big_100k_var=$(printf "%0*d" 100000 0) > > # this works: 200KB of options for `printf` external command > $ $(which printf) "%s %s" $big_100k_var $big_100k_var >/dev/null; echo $? > 0 > > # this fails: 200KB of options for `gcc`, fails in `cc1` > $ touch a.c; gcc -c a.c -DA=$big_100k_var -DB=$big_100k_var > gcc: fatal error: cannot execute 'cc1': execv: Argument list too long > compilation terminated. > > I would say this 128KB limitation is arbitrary. > The change raises the limit of `MAX_ARG_STRLEN` from 32 pakes (128K > n `x86_64`) to the maximum limit of stack allowed by Linux today. > > It has a minor chance of overflowing userspace programs that use > `MAX_ARG_STRLEN` to allocate the strings on stack. It should not be a > big problem as such programs are already are at risk of overflowing > stack. > > Tested as: > $ V=$(printf "%*d" 1000000 0) ls > > Before the change it failed with `ls: Argument list too long`. After the > change `ls` executes as expected. > > WDYT of abandoning the limit and allow user to fill entire environment > with a single command or a single variable? Changing this value shouldn't risk any vma collisions, since exec is still checking the utilization before starting the actual process replacement steps (see bprm->argmin). It does seem pathological to set this to the full 6MB, though, since that would _immediately_ get rejected by execve() with an -E2BIG, but ultimately, there isn't really any specific limit to the length of individual strings as long as the entire space is less than bprm->argmin. Perhaps MAX_ARG_STRLEN should be removed entirely and the kernel can just use bprm->argmin? I haven't really looked at that to see if it's sane, though. It just feels like MAX_ARG_STRLEN isn't a meaningful limit. -Kees > > CC: Andrew Morton <akpm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> > CC: Eric Biederman <ebiederm@xxxxxxxxxxxx> > CC: Kees Cook <keescook@xxxxxxxxxxxx> > CC: linux-mm@xxxxxxxxx > CC: linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > Signed-off-by: Sergei Trofimovich <slyich@xxxxxxxxx> > --- > include/uapi/linux/binfmts.h | 6 +++--- > 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) > > diff --git a/include/uapi/linux/binfmts.h b/include/uapi/linux/binfmts.h > index c6f9450efc12..4e828515a22e 100644 > --- a/include/uapi/linux/binfmts.h > +++ b/include/uapi/linux/binfmts.h > @@ -8,11 +8,11 @@ struct pt_regs; > > /* > * These are the maximum length and maximum number of strings passed to the > - * execve() system call. MAX_ARG_STRLEN is essentially random but serves to > - * prevent the kernel from being unduly impacted by misaddressed pointers. > + * execve() system call. MAX_ARG_STRLEN is as large as Linux allows new > + * stack to grow. Currently it's `_STK_LIM / 4 * 3 = 6MB` (see fs/exec.c). > * MAX_ARG_STRINGS is chosen to fit in a signed 32-bit integer. > */ > -#define MAX_ARG_STRLEN (PAGE_SIZE * 32) > +#define MAX_ARG_STRLEN (6 * 1024 * 1024) > #define MAX_ARG_STRINGS 0x7FFFFFFF > > /* sizeof(linux_binprm->buf) */ > -- > 2.42.0 > -- Kees Cook
