fortify: Fix __compiletime_strlen() under UBSAN_BOUNDS_LOCAL
Key facts
- Attack vector
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- Privileges required
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- User interaction
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- Attack complexity
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- Impact type
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- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
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- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 5 fixed, 2 without a fix
No CVSS vector from any source. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fortify: Fix __compiletime_strlen() under UBSAN_BOUNDS_LOCAL With CONFIG_FORTIFY=y and CONFIG_UBSAN_LOCAL_BOUNDS=y enabled, we observe a runtime panic while running Android's Compatibility Test Suite's (CTS) android.hardware.input.cts.tests. This is stemming from a strlen() call in hidinput_allocate(). __compiletime_strlen() is implemented in terms of __builtin_object_size(), then does an array access to check for NUL-termination. A quirk of __builtin_object_size() is that for strings whose values are runtime dependent, __builtin_object_size(str, 1 or 0) returns the maximum size of possible values when those sizes are determinable at compile time. Example: static const char *v = "FOO BAR"; static const char *y = "FOO BA"; unsigned long x (int z) { // Returns 8, which is: // max(__builtin_object_size(v, 1), __builtin_object_size(y, 1)) return __builtin_object_size(z ? v : y, 1); } So when FORTIFY_SOURCE is enabled, the current implementation of __compiletime_strlen() will try to access beyond the end of y at runtime using the size of v. Mixed with UBSAN_LOCAL_BOUNDS we get a fault. hidinput_allocate() has a local C string whose value is control flow dependent on a switch statement, so __builtin_object_size(str, 1) evaluates to the maximum string length, making all other cases fault on the last character check. hidinput_allocate() could be cleaned up to avoid runtime calls to strlen() since the local variable can only have literal values, so there's no benefit to trying to fortify the strlen call site there. Perform a __builtin_constant_p() check against index 0 earlier in the macro to filter out the control-flow-dependant case. Add a KUnit test for checking the expected behavioral characteristics of FORTIFY_SOURCE internals.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 5.19.17, 6.0.3, 6.1
Red Hat 2 advisories
- RHSA-2023:7077 Released 2023-11-14 · Red Hat rating Importantkernel security, bug fix, and enhancement update
- Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 8) kernel-tools-libs-devel-4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) bpftool-4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9, kernel-4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9, kernel-abi-stablelists-4.18.0-513.5.1.el8_9 +19
- RHSA-2023:2458 Released 2023-05-09 · Red Hat rating Importantkernel security, bug fix, and enhancement update
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) kernel-64k-debug-devel-5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2, kernel-64k-debug-devel-matched-5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2, kernel-64k-devel-5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2 +10
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 9) bpftool-7.0.0-284.11.1.el9_2, kernel-5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2, kernel-64k-5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2 +29
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux CRB (v. 9) kernel-tools-libs-devel-5.14.0-284.11.1.el9_2
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Low. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat CodeReady Linux Builder (v. 8) | Fixed | RHSA-2023:7077 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) | Fixed | RHSA-2023:2458 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 8) | Fixed | RHSA-2023:7077 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux BaseOS (v. 9) | Fixed | RHSA-2023:2458 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux CRB (v. 9) | Fixed | RHSA-2023:2458 |
Not affected: 3 products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2022-50778
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-h2v3-h25x-63cp
References
More Linux vulnerabilities
- TI-2025-26358 tls: fix handling of zero-length records on the rx_list KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2026-38352 netfilter: bridge: make ebt_snat ARP rewrite writable KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
- TI-2021-02452 Incorrect authorization in Ubuntu linux kernel KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
- TI-2013-05264 The (1) get_user and (2) put_user API functions in the Linux kernel before 3.5.5 on the… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
- TI-2022-00125 Integer overflow in kernel KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
- TI-2013-01864 The perf_swevent_init function in kernel/events/core.c in the Linux kernel before 3.8.9… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
Sources
- CVE-2022-50778 · CVE Program
- CVE-2022-50778 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-h2v3-h25x-63cp · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2022-50778 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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