Thread (22 messages) 22 messages, 2 authors, 3d ago
WARM3d
Revisions (2)
  1. v2 [diff vs current]
  2. v3 current

[PATCH v3 07/20] tracing: Add __print_untrusted_str()

From: Mickaël Salaün <mic@digikod.net>
Date: 2026-07-22 17:12:32
Also in: linux-trace-kernel
Subsystem: the rest, tracing · Maintainers: Linus Torvalds, Steven Rostedt, Masami Hiramatsu

Landlock tracepoints expose filesystem paths and process names that may
contain spaces, equal signs, or other characters that break ftrace field
parsing.

Add a __print_untrusted_str() TP_printk helper that escapes separators
(space, equal sign), quotes, backslashes, and non-printable bytes via
string_escape_mem(), so an untrusted string cannot inject field
separators or control characters into the ftrace output and can be
unambiguously recovered.

This guarantee applies to the in-kernel ftrace text output (trace,
trace_pipe).  Userspace libtraceevent (perf, trace-cmd) does not yet
parse this helper, so a companion libtraceevent change is needed for
those consumers to pretty-print the field.

Cc: Günther Noack <gnoack@google.com>
Cc: Masami Hiramatsu <mhiramat@kernel.org>
Cc: Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@efficios.com>
Cc: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@goodmis.org>
Cc: Tingmao Wang <redacted>
Signed-off-by: Mickaël Salaün <mic@digikod.net>
---

Changes since v2:
https://patch.msgid.link/20260406143717.1815792-6-mic@digikod.net
- Add a Return: kdoc for trace_print_untrusted_str_seq() and rename its
  declaration parameter to src.

Changes since v1:
https://patch.msgid.link/20250523165741.693976-4-mic@digikod.net
- Remove WARN_ON() (pointed out by Steven Rostedt).
---
 include/linux/trace_events.h               |  2 +
 include/trace/stages/stage3_trace_output.h |  4 ++
 include/trace/stages/stage7_class_define.h |  1 +
 kernel/trace/trace_output.c                | 44 ++++++++++++++++++++++
 4 files changed, 51 insertions(+)
diff --git a/include/linux/trace_events.h b/include/linux/trace_events.h
index 308c76b57d13..4ece9b8d9d6b 100644
--- a/include/linux/trace_events.h
+++ b/include/linux/trace_events.h
@@ -60,6 +60,8 @@ trace_print_hex_dump_seq(struct trace_seq *p, const char *prefix_str,
 			 int prefix_type, int rowsize, int groupsize,
 			 const void *buf, size_t len, bool ascii);
 
+const char *trace_print_untrusted_str_seq(struct trace_seq *s, const char *src);
+
 int trace_raw_output_prep(struct trace_iterator *iter,
 			  struct trace_event *event);
 extern __printf(2, 3)
diff --git a/include/trace/stages/stage3_trace_output.h b/include/trace/stages/stage3_trace_output.h
index 181b81335781..0235dbd11b52 100644
--- a/include/trace/stages/stage3_trace_output.h
+++ b/include/trace/stages/stage3_trace_output.h
@@ -133,6 +133,10 @@
 	trace_print_hex_dump_seq(p, prefix_str, prefix_type,		\
 				 rowsize, groupsize, buf, len, ascii)
 
+#undef __print_untrusted_str
+#define __print_untrusted_str(str)					\
+		trace_print_untrusted_str_seq(p, __get_str(str))
+
 #undef __print_ns_to_secs
 #define __print_ns_to_secs(value)			\
 	({						\
diff --git a/include/trace/stages/stage7_class_define.h b/include/trace/stages/stage7_class_define.h
index 47008897a795..f29a82e7a4c4 100644
--- a/include/trace/stages/stage7_class_define.h
+++ b/include/trace/stages/stage7_class_define.h
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@
 #undef __print_array
 #undef __print_dynamic_array
 #undef __print_hex_dump
+#undef __print_untrusted_str
 #undef __get_buf
 
 #undef __event_in_hardirq
diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace_output.c b/kernel/trace/trace_output.c
index a5ad76175d10..f0a9b29b3e36 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/trace_output.c
+++ b/kernel/trace/trace_output.c
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 #include <linux/btf.h>
 #include <linux/bpf.h>
 #include <linux/hashtable.h>
+#include <linux/string_helpers.h>
 
 #include "trace_output.h"
 #include "trace_btf.h"
@@ -325,6 +326,49 @@ trace_print_hex_dump_seq(struct trace_seq *p, const char *prefix_str,
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(trace_print_hex_dump_seq);
 
+/**
+ * trace_print_untrusted_str_seq - print a string after escaping characters
+ * @s: trace seq struct to write to
+ * @src: The string to print
+ *
+ * Prints a string to a trace seq after escaping all special characters,
+ * including common separators (space, equal sign), quotes, and backslashes.
+ * This transforms a string from an untrusted source (e.g. user space) to make
+ * it:
+ * - safe to parse,
+ * - easy to read (for simple strings),
+ * - easy to get back the original.
+ *
+ * Return: A pointer to the escaped string within the trace seq buffer, or
+ * %NULL if @src is %NULL or the buffer is exhausted.
+ */
+const char *trace_print_untrusted_str_seq(struct trace_seq *s,
+					   const char *src)
+{
+	int escaped_size;
+	char *buf;
+	size_t buf_size = seq_buf_get_buf(&s->seq, &buf);
+	const char *ret = trace_seq_buffer_ptr(s);
+
+	/* Buffer exhaustion is normal when the trace buffer is full. */
+	if (!src || buf_size == 0)
+		return NULL;
+
+	escaped_size = string_escape_mem(src, strlen(src), buf, buf_size,
+		ESCAPE_SPACE | ESCAPE_SPECIAL | ESCAPE_NAP | ESCAPE_APPEND |
+		ESCAPE_OCTAL, " ='\"\\");
+	if (unlikely(escaped_size >= buf_size)) {
+		/* We need some room for the final '\0'. */
+		seq_buf_set_overflow(&s->seq);
+		s->full = 1;
+		return NULL;
+	}
+	seq_buf_commit(&s->seq, escaped_size);
+	trace_seq_putc(s, 0);
+	return ret;
+}
+EXPORT_SYMBOL(trace_print_untrusted_str_seq);
+
 int trace_raw_output_prep(struct trace_iterator *iter,
 			  struct trace_event *trace_event)
 {
-- 
2.54.0
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