threads / patch / 48573

patchpackfile: Correct zlib buffer handling

Subject: [PATCH] packfile: Correct zlib buffer handling

## tl;dr

7 messages between May 25, 2018 and Jun 13, 2018. Diffs are folded; open one to read it.

replies: 6people: 3as markdown or json

Jeremy Linton· May 25, 2018, 22:56 UTC · lore

The buffer being passed to zlib includes a null terminator that git needs to keep in place. unpack_compressed_entry() attempts to detect the case that the source buffer hasn't been fully consumed by checking to see if the destination buffer has been over consumed.

This yields two problems, first a single byte overrun won't be detected properly because the Z_STREAM_END will then be set, but the null terminator will have been overwritten. The other problem is that more recent zlib patches have been poisoning the unconsumed portions of the buffers which also overwrites the null, while correctly returning length and status.

Lets rely on the fact that the source buffer will only be fully consumed when the when the destination buffer is inflated to the correct size. We can do this by passing zlib the correct buffer size and properly checking the return status. The latter check actually already exists if the buffer size is correct.

Signed-off-by: Jeremy Linton <lintonrjeremy@gmail.com>
---
 packfile.c | 4 ++--
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
Show changes to packfile.c +2 −2
diff --git a/packfile.c b/packfile.c
index 7c1a2519f..245eb3204 100644
--- a/packfile.c
+++ b/packfile.c
@@ -1416,7 +1416,7 @@ static void *unpack_compressed_entry(struct packed_git *p,
 		return NULL;
 	memset(&stream, 0, sizeof(stream));
 	stream.next_out = buffer;
-	stream.avail_out = size + 1;
+	stream.avail_out = size;
 
 	git_inflate_init(&stream);
 	do {
@@ -1424,7 +1424,7 @@ static void *unpack_compressed_entry(struct packed_git *p,
 		stream.next_in = in;
 		st = git_inflate(&stream, Z_FINISH);
 		if (!stream.avail_out)
-			break; /* the payload is larger than it should be */
+			break; /* done, st indicates if source fully consumed */
 		curpos += stream.next_in - in;
 	} while (st == Z_OK || st == Z_BUF_ERROR);
 	git_inflate_end(&stream);
-- 
2.13.6
Duy Nguyen· May 26, 2018, 05:51 UTC · re: Jeremy Linton · lore

Re: [PATCH] packfile: Correct zlib buffer handling

On Sat, May 26, 2018 at 12:56 AM, Jeremy Linton <lintonrjeremy@gmail.com> wrote:
Show 6 quoted lines
> @@ -1416,7 +1416,7 @@ static void *unpack_compressed_entry(struct packed_git *p,
>                 return NULL;
>         memset(&stream, 0, sizeof(stream));
>         stream.next_out = buffer;
> -       stream.avail_out = size + 1;
> +       stream.avail_out = size;
You may want to include in your commit message a reference to
39eea7bdd9 (Fix incorrect error check while reading deflated pack data
- 2009-10-21) which adds this plus one with a fascinating story
behind.
-- 
Duy
Junio C Hamano· May 26, 2018, 23:57 UTC · re: Duy Nguyen · lore

Re: [PATCH] packfile: Correct zlib buffer handling

Duy Nguyen <pclouds@gmail.com> writes:
Show 12 quoted lines
> On Sat, May 26, 2018 at 12:56 AM, Jeremy Linton <lintonrjeremy@gmail.com> wrote:
>> @@ -1416,7 +1416,7 @@ static void *unpack_compressed_entry(struct packed_git *p,
>>                 return NULL;
>>         memset(&stream, 0, sizeof(stream));
>>         stream.next_out = buffer;
>> -       stream.avail_out = size + 1;
>> +       stream.avail_out = size;
>
> You may want to include in your commit message a reference to
> 39eea7bdd9 (Fix incorrect error check while reading deflated pack data
> - 2009-10-21) which adds this plus one with a fascinating story
> behind.

A bit puzzled---are you saying that this recent patch breaks the old fix and must be done in some other way?

Duy Nguyen· May 27, 2018, 05:02 UTC · re: Junio C Hamano · lore

Re: [PATCH] packfile: Correct zlib buffer handling

On Sun, May 27, 2018 at 1:57 AM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
Show 17 quoted lines
> Duy Nguyen <pclouds@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> On Sat, May 26, 2018 at 12:56 AM, Jeremy Linton <lintonrjeremy@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> @@ -1416,7 +1416,7 @@ static void *unpack_compressed_entry(struct packed_git *p,
>>>                 return NULL;
>>>         memset(&stream, 0, sizeof(stream));
>>>         stream.next_out = buffer;
>>> -       stream.avail_out = size + 1;
>>> +       stream.avail_out = size;
>>
>> You may want to include in your commit message a reference to
>> 39eea7bdd9 (Fix incorrect error check while reading deflated pack data
>> - 2009-10-21) which adds this plus one with a fascinating story
>> behind.
>
> A bit puzzled---are you saying that this recent patch breaks the old
> fix and must be done in some other way?

No. I actually wanted to answer that question when I tried to track down the commit that adds " + 1" but I did not spend enough time to understand the old problem. I guess your puzzle means you didn't think it would break anything, which is good.

-- 
Duy
Junio C Hamano· May 27, 2018, 11:53 UTC · re: Duy Nguyen · lore

Re: [PATCH] packfile: Correct zlib buffer handling

Duy Nguyen <pclouds@gmail.com> writes:
Show 23 quoted lines
> On Sun, May 27, 2018 at 1:57 AM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
>> Duy Nguyen <pclouds@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>>> On Sat, May 26, 2018 at 12:56 AM, Jeremy Linton <lintonrjeremy@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> @@ -1416,7 +1416,7 @@ static void *unpack_compressed_entry(struct packed_git *p,
>>>>                 return NULL;
>>>>         memset(&stream, 0, sizeof(stream));
>>>>         stream.next_out = buffer;
>>>> -       stream.avail_out = size + 1;
>>>> +       stream.avail_out = size;
>>>
>>> You may want to include in your commit message a reference to
>>> 39eea7bdd9 (Fix incorrect error check while reading deflated pack data
>>> - 2009-10-21) which adds this plus one with a fascinating story
>>> behind.
>>
>> A bit puzzled---are you saying that this recent patch breaks the old
>> fix and must be done in some other way?
>
> No. I actually wanted to answer that question when I tried to track
> down the commit that adds " + 1" but I did not spend enough time to
> understand the old problem. I guess your puzzle means you didn't think
> it would break anything, which is good.

No it merely means I am puzzled how the posted patch that goes directly opposite to what an earlier "fix" did is a correct solution to anything X-<.

Junio C Hamano· May 28, 2018, 02:41 UTC · re: Junio C Hamano · lore

Re: [PATCH] packfile: Correct zlib buffer handling

Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> writes:
Show 29 quoted lines
> Duy Nguyen <pclouds@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> On Sun, May 27, 2018 at 1:57 AM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
>>> Duy Nguyen <pclouds@gmail.com> writes:
>>>
>>>> On Sat, May 26, 2018 at 12:56 AM, Jeremy Linton <lintonrjeremy@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> @@ -1416,7 +1416,7 @@ static void *unpack_compressed_entry(struct packed_git *p,
>>>>>                 return NULL;
>>>>>         memset(&stream, 0, sizeof(stream));
>>>>>         stream.next_out = buffer;
>>>>> -       stream.avail_out = size + 1;
>>>>> +       stream.avail_out = size;
>>>>
>>>> You may want to include in your commit message a reference to
>>>> 39eea7bdd9 (Fix incorrect error check while reading deflated pack data
>>>> - 2009-10-21) which adds this plus one with a fascinating story
>>>> behind.
>>>
>>> A bit puzzled---are you saying that this recent patch breaks the old
>>> fix and must be done in some other way?
>>
>> No. I actually wanted to answer that question when I tried to track
>> down the commit that adds " + 1" but I did not spend enough time to
>> understand the old problem. I guess your puzzle means you didn't think
>> it would break anything, which is good.
>
> No it merely means I am puzzled how the posted patch that goes
> directly opposite to what an earlier "fix" did is a correct solution
> to anything X-<.
Specifically, I was worried about this assertion:
    Lets rely on the fact that the source buffer will only be fully
    consumed when the when the destination buffer is inflated to the
    correct size.

which I think is the exact bad thinking that caused troubles for us in the past; isn't the explanation in 456cdf6e ("Fix loose object uncompression check.", 2007-03-19) relevant here?

-	stream.avail_out = size + 1;
+	stream.avail_out = size;
	...
 		stream.next_in = in;
 		st = git_inflate(&stream, Z_FINISH);
 		if (!stream.avail_out)
-			break; /* the payload is larger than it should be */
+			break; /* done, st indicates if source fully consumed */
 		curpos += stream.next_in - in;
 	} while (st == Z_OK || st == Z_BUF_ERROR);
 	git_inflate_end(&stream);
 	if ((st != Z_STREAM_END) || stream.total_out != size) {
 		free(buffer);
 		return NULL;
 	}

With minimum stream.avail_out without slack, when !avail_out, i.e. when we fully filled the output buffer, it could be that we had correct input that deflates to the correct size, in which case we are happy---st would say Z_STREAM_END, we would leave the loop because it is neither OK nor BUF_ERROR, and total_out would report the size we expected. Or the input zlib stream may have ended with bytes that express "this concludes the stream", and the input bytes before that was sufficient to construct the original payload fully, and we may have just fed the bytes before that "this concludes the stream" to git_inflate().

In such a case, we haven't consumed all the avail_in. We may already have all the correct output, i.e. !avail_out, but because we haven't consumed the "this concludes the stream", st is not STREAM_END in such a case.

Our existing while() loop, with one-byte slack in avail_out, would have let us continue and the next iteration of the loop would have consumed the input without producing any more output (i.e. avail_out would have been left to 1 in both of these final two rounds) and we would have exited the loop. After calling inflate_end(), we would have noticed STREAM_END and correct size and we would have been happy.

The updated code would handle this latter case rather badly, no? We leave the loop early, notice st is not STREAM_END, and be very unhappy, because this patch did not give us to consume the very end of the input stream and left the loop early.

>> This yields two problems, first a single byte overrun won't be detected
>> properly because the Z_STREAM_END will then be set, but the null
>> terminator will have been overwritten.

Because we compare total_out and size at the end, we would detect it as an error in this function, no? Then zlib overwriting NUL would not be a problem, as we would free the buffer and return NULL, no?

>> The other problem is that
>> more recent zlib patches have been poisoning the unconsumed portions
>> of the buffers which also overwrites the null, while correctly
>> returning length and status.
Isn't that a bug in zlib, though?  Or do they do that deliberately?

I think a workaround with lower impact would be to manually restore NUL at the end of the buffer.

Jeremy Linton· Jun 13, 2018, 01:04 UTC · re: Junio C Hamano · lore

Re: [PATCH] packfile: Correct zlib buffer handling

Hi,
Sorry about the delay here (bit of a mix-up and didn't reply to the list).
(see inline )
On Sun, May 27, 2018 at 9:41 PM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
Show 5 quoted lines
> Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> writes:
>
>> Duy Nguyen <pclouds@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>>> On Sun, May 27, 2018 at 1:57 AM, Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
(trimming)
Show 42 quoted lines
>
> Specifically, I was worried about this assertion:
>
>     Lets rely on the fact that the source buffer will only be fully
>     consumed when the when the destination buffer is inflated to the
>     correct size.
>
> which I think is the exact bad thinking that caused troubles for us
> in the past; isn't the explanation in 456cdf6e ("Fix loose object
> uncompression check.", 2007-03-19) relevant here?
>
> -       stream.avail_out = size + 1;
> +       stream.avail_out = size;
>         ...
>                 stream.next_in = in;
>                 st = git_inflate(&stream, Z_FINISH);
>                 if (!stream.avail_out)
> -                       break; /* the payload is larger than it should be */
> +                       break; /* done, st indicates if source fully consumed */
>                 curpos += stream.next_in - in;
>         } while (st == Z_OK || st == Z_BUF_ERROR);
>         git_inflate_end(&stream);
>         if ((st != Z_STREAM_END) || stream.total_out != size) {
>                 free(buffer);
>                 return NULL;
>         }
>
> With minimum stream.avail_out without slack, when !avail_out, i.e.
> when we fully filled the output buffer, it could be that we had
> correct input that deflates to the correct size, in which case we
> are happy---st would say Z_STREAM_END, we would leave the loop
> because it is neither OK nor BUF_ERROR, and total_out would report
> the size we expected.  Or the input zlib stream may have ended with
> bytes that express "this concludes the stream", and the input bytes
> before that was sufficient to construct the original payload fully,
> and we may have just fed the bytes before that "this concludes the
> stream" to git_inflate().
>
> In such a case, we haven't consumed all the avail_in.  We may
> already have all the correct output, i.e. !avail_out, but because we
> haven't consumed the "this concludes the stream", st is not
> STREAM_END in such a case.

If I understand correctly your concerned the avail_in is longer than what is required to fill the output buffer..

I'm fairly sure that won't result in a Z_STREAM_END, as you rightfully point out, but the loop _will_ terminate due to the output buffer being full and then since its not Z_STREAM_END the unpack_compressed_entry fails, as it should.

Show 8 quoted lines
>
> Our existing while() loop, with one-byte slack in avail_out, would
> have let us continue and the next iteration of the loop would have
> consumed the input without producing any more output (i.e. avail_out
> would have been left to 1 in both of these final two rounds) and we
> would have exited the loop.  After calling inflate_end(), we would
> have noticed STREAM_END and correct size and we would have been
> happy.

Your assuming that zlib will terminate with an error, but a fully decompressed buffer, because it hasn't consumed the entire input buffer. I don't think that is how it works (its not how the documentation is written, nor the bits of code i've looked at seem to work, which granted i'm not a zlib maintainer).

Show 5 quoted lines
>
> The updated code would handle this latter case rather badly, no?  We
> leave the loop early, notice st is not STREAM_END, and be very
> unhappy, because this patch did not give us to consume the very end
> of the input stream and left the loop early.

Your correct if the above case is a valid zlib behavior then there would be a problem. But, I don't think the termination is dicated by insufficient output space until there is an attempt to utilize that space.

Show 18 quoted lines
>
>>> This yields two problems, first a single byte overrun won't be detected
>>> properly because the Z_STREAM_END will then be set, but the null
>>> terminator will have been overwritten.
>
> Because we compare total_out and size at the end, we would detect it
> as an error in this function, no?  Then zlib overwriting NUL would
> not be a problem, as we would free the buffer and return NULL, no?
>
>>> The other problem is that
>>> more recent zlib patches have been poisoning the unconsumed portions
>>> of the buffers which also overwrites the null, while correctly
>>> returning length and status.
>
> Isn't that a bug in zlib, though?  Or do they do that deliberately?
>
> I think a workaround with lower impact would be to manually restore
> NUL at the end of the buffer.

I agree, just resetting the NULL its likely safer, and I will repost a patch soon which if nothing else makes git more robust to errant zlib behavior.

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