tty: n_hdlc: Use flexible-array member and struct_size() helper
authorGustavo A. R. Silva <gustavo@embeddedor.com>
Tue, 21 Jan 2020 17:21:38 +0000 (11:21 -0600)
committerGreg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
Thu, 23 Jan 2020 18:22:49 +0000 (19:22 +0100)
commit85f4c95172d606dd66f7ee1fa50c45a245535ffd
tree5f4a8806668484c6a48c508c33036a499091a5e9
parent1ddeb5a74ab6941dfd310b73c8554c393c70c2ef
tty: n_hdlc: Use flexible-array member and struct_size() helper

Old code in the kernel uses 1-byte and 0-byte arrays to indicate the
presence of a "variable length array":

struct something {
    int length;
    u8 data[1];
};

struct something *instance;

instance = kmalloc(sizeof(*instance) + size, GFP_KERNEL);
instance->length = size;
memcpy(instance->data, source, size);

There is also 0-byte arrays. Both cases pose confusion for things like
sizeof(), CONFIG_FORTIFY_SOURCE, etc.[1] Instead, the preferred mechanism
to declare variable-length types such as the one above is a flexible array
member[2] which need to be the last member of a structure and empty-sized:

struct something {
        int stuff;
        u8 data[];
};

Also, by making use of the mechanism above, we will get a compiler warning
in case the flexible array does not occur last in the structure, which
will help us prevent some kind of undefined behavior bugs from being
inadvertenly introduced[3] to the codebase from now on.

Lastly, make use of the struct_size() helper to safely calculate the
allocation size for instances of struct n_hdlc_buf and avoid any potential
type mistakes[4][5].

[1] https://github.com/KSPP/linux/issues/21
[2] https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Zero-Length.html
[3] commit 76497732932f ("cxgb3/l2t: Fix undefined behaviour")
[4] https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/60e14fb7-8596-e21c-f4be-546ce39e7bdb@embeddedor.com/
[5] commit 553d66cb1e86 ("iommu/vt-d: Use struct_size() helper")

Signed-off-by: Gustavo A. R. Silva <gustavo@embeddedor.com>
Reviewed-by: Jiri Slaby <jslaby@suse.cz>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20200121172138.GA3162@embeddedor
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
drivers/tty/n_hdlc.c