strncpy() is deprecated for use on NUL-terminated destination strings [1] and as such we should prefer more robust and less ambiguous string interfaces.
wl->chip.phy_fw_ver_str is obviously intended to be NUL-terminated by the deliberate comment telling us as much. Furthermore, its only use is drivers/net/wireless/ti/wlcore/debugfs.c shows us it should be NUL-terminated since its used in scnprintf: 492 | DRIVER_STATE_PRINT_STR(chip.phy_fw_ver_str); which is defined as: | #define DRIVER_STATE_PRINT_STR(x) DRIVER_STATE_PRINT(x, "%s") ... | #define DRIVER_STATE_PRINT(x, fmt) \ | (res += scnprintf(buf + res, DRIVER_STATE_BUF_LEN - res,\ | #x " = " fmt "\n", wl->x)) We can also see that NUL-padding is not required. Considering the above, a suitable replacement is `strscpy` [2] due to the fact that it guarantees NUL-termination on the destination buffer without unnecessarily NUL-padding. The very fact that a plain-english comment had to be made alongside a manual NUL-byte assignment for such a simple purpose shows why strncpy is faulty. It has non-obvious behavior that has to be clarified every time it is used (and if it isn't then the reader suffers). Link: https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/process/deprecated.html#strncpy-on-nul-terminated-strings [1] Link: https://manpages.debian.org/testing/linux-manual-4.8/strscpy.9.en.html [2] Link: https://github.com/KSPP/linux/issues/90 Cc: [email protected] Signed-off-by: Justin Stitt <[email protected]> --- Changes in v2: - add wifi: to subject (thanks Jeff) - Link to v1: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20231017-strncpy-drivers-net-wireless-ti-wl18xx-main-c-v1-1-ed5322ec8...@google.com --- Note: build-tested only. Found with: $ rg "strncpy\(" --- drivers/net/wireless/ti/wl18xx/main.c | 5 +---- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 4 deletions(-) diff --git a/drivers/net/wireless/ti/wl18xx/main.c b/drivers/net/wireless/ti/wl18xx/main.c index 0b3cf8477c6c..1e4a430d1543 100644 --- a/drivers/net/wireless/ti/wl18xx/main.c +++ b/drivers/net/wireless/ti/wl18xx/main.c @@ -1516,12 +1516,9 @@ static int wl18xx_handle_static_data(struct wl1271 *wl, struct wl18xx_static_data_priv *static_data_priv = (struct wl18xx_static_data_priv *) static_data->priv; - strncpy(wl->chip.phy_fw_ver_str, static_data_priv->phy_version, + strscpy(wl->chip.phy_fw_ver_str, static_data_priv->phy_version, sizeof(wl->chip.phy_fw_ver_str)); - /* make sure the string is NULL-terminated */ - wl->chip.phy_fw_ver_str[sizeof(wl->chip.phy_fw_ver_str) - 1] = '\0'; - wl1271_info("PHY firmware version: %s", static_data_priv->phy_version); return 0; --- base-commit: 58720809f52779dc0f08e53e54b014209d13eebb change-id: 20231017-strncpy-drivers-net-wireless-ti-wl18xx-main-c-356a0272bab4 Best regards, -- Justin Stitt <[email protected]>
