[glibc/release/2.43/master] posix: Fix stack overflow in wordexp tilde expansion (BZ 34091, CVE-2026-6791)

Aurelien Jarno via Glibc-cvs <[email protected]> Wed, 1 Jul 2026 21:43:23 +0000 (GMT)
Newsgroups gmane.comp.lib.glibc.cvs
Message-ID <[email protected]>
https://sourceware.org/git/gitweb.cgi?p=glibc.git;h=dae425b554207f7c4599c7fac707ad4c08545674

commit dae425b554207f7c4599c7fac707ad4c08545674
Author: Adhemerval Zanella <[email protected]>
Date:   Tue Apr 14 10:50:37 2026 -0300

    posix: Fix stack overflow in wordexp tilde expansion (BZ 34091, CVE-2026-6791)
    
    The parse_tilde function previously used strndupa to allocate memory
    for the parsed username on the stack, and since the input is
    user-defined, this can lead to a stack overflow.
    
    This patch fixes the issue by replacing strndupa with scratch_buffer,
    by reusing the buffer used in the __getpwnam_r call.
    
    The new “tst-wordexp-tilde.c” test is a test-container to avoid using
    system-defined NSS modules.
    
    Checked on x86_64-linux-gnu and i686-linux-gnu.
    
    (cherry picked from commit 07c24f35392b727e6100d33edfdf811a6c68c218)

Diff:
---
 posix/Makefile                                 |   1 +
 posix/tst-wordexp-tilde.c                      | 244 +++++++++++++++++++++++++
 posix/tst-wordexp-tilde.root/etc/group         |   1 +
 posix/tst-wordexp-tilde.root/etc/nsswitch.conf |   3 +
 posix/tst-wordexp-tilde.root/etc/passwd        |   1 +
 posix/wordexp.c                                |  24 ++-
 6 files changed, 268 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/posix/Makefile b/posix/Makefile
index f377948462..b6fb54364a 100644
--- a/posix/Makefile
+++ b/posix/Makefile
@@ -357,6 +357,7 @@ tests-internal := \
 tests-container := \
   bug-ga2 \
   tst-vfork3 \
+  tst-wordexp-tilde \
   # tests-container
 
 tests-time64 := \
diff --git a/posix/tst-wordexp-tilde.c b/posix/tst-wordexp-tilde.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1661603681
--- /dev/null
+++ b/posix/tst-wordexp-tilde.c
@@ -0,0 +1,244 @@
+/* Test wordexp tilde expansion with large usernames (BZ 34091).
+   Copyright (C) 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+   This file is part of the GNU C Library.
+
+   The GNU C Library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
+   modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
+   License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
+   version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
+
+   The GNU C Library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+   but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+   MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
+   Lesser General Public License for more details.
+
+   You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
+   License along with the GNU C Library; if not, see
+   <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.  */
+
+#include <pwd.h>
+#include <stdio.h>
+#include <string.h>
+#include <wordexp.h>
+#include <stdlib.h>
+#include <sys/resource.h>
+
+#include <support/check.h>
+#include <support/support.h>
+#include <support/xunistd.h>
+#include <support/namespace.h>
+
+typedef void (*func_callback_t)(void);
+
+static void
+subprocess_small_stack (void *closure)
+{
+  struct rlimit rl;
+  TEST_COMPARE (getrlimit (RLIMIT_STACK, &rl), 0);
+  rl.rlim_cur = 512 * 1024;
+  TEST_COMPARE (setrlimit (RLIMIT_STACK, &rl), 0);
+
+  func_callback_t func_test = closure;
+  func_test ();
+}
+
+/* Build a string "~<padding>/tail" where <padding> is LEN bytes of the
+   character CH.  The caller must free the result.  */
+static char *
+make_tilde_input (char ch, size_t len, const char *tail)
+{
+  /* ~  +  len  +  /  +  tail  +  \0 */
+  size_t taillen = tail != NULL ? strlen (tail) : 0;
+  size_t total = 1 + len + 1 + taillen + 1;
+  char *buf = xmalloc (total);
+  buf[0] = '~';
+  memset (buf + 1, ch, len);
+  buf[1 + len] = '/';
+  if (tail != NULL)
+    memcpy (buf + 1 + len + 1, tail, taillen);
+  buf[total - 1] = '\0';
+  return buf;
+}
+
+/* Test 1: A very long username must not crash.  The username will not match
+   any real user, so wordexp returns ~<long>/rest.  */
+static void
+test_long_username (void)
+{
+  printf ("info: test_long_username_no_crash\n");
+
+  static const char REST[] = "rest";
+
+  /* 1 MiB username — well beyond any reasonable stack frame.  */
+  const size_t long_len = 1024 * 1024;
+  char *input = make_tilde_input ('A', long_len, REST);
+
+  wordexp_t we = { 0 };
+  int ret = wordexp (input, &we, 0);
+  /* The (non-existent) username is invalid, so wordexp falls back to
+     literal output: ~AAA…/rest.  */
+  TEST_COMPARE (ret, 0);
+  TEST_COMPARE (we.we_wordc, 1);
+
+  /* Verify prefix: '~' followed by long_len 'A's.  */
+  const char *result = we.we_wordv[0];
+  TEST_COMPARE (result[0], '~');
+  TEST_COMPARE (strlen (result),
+	        1 /* ~ */ + long_len + sizeof (REST));
+  for (size_t j = 1; j <= long_len; j++)
+    if (result[j] != 'A')
+      {
+	printf ("  mismatch at position %zu: expected 'A', got '%c'\n",
+		j, result[j]);
+	support_record_failure ();
+	break;
+      }
+  /* Verify the tail after the username.  */
+  TEST_COMPARE_STRING (result + 1 + long_len, "/rest");
+
+  wordfree (&we);
+  free (input);
+}
+
+/* Test 2: A username that just exceeds the default scratch_buffer inline
+   size (1024 bytes) exercises the scratch_buffer_set_array_size growth path
+   without being excessively large.  */
+static void
+test_scratch_buffer_growth (void)
+{
+  printf ("info: test_scratch_buffer_growth\n");
+
+  const size_t len = 2048;
+  char *input = make_tilde_input ('x', len, NULL);
+
+  wordexp_t we = { 0 };
+  int ret = wordexp (input, &we, 0);
+  TEST_COMPARE (ret, 0);
+  TEST_COMPARE (we.we_wordc, 1);
+
+  /* ~xxx…/ — the trailing slash makes a separate empty component, but
+     wordexp merges it into the single token ~xxx…/.  */
+  const char *result = we.we_wordv[0];
+  TEST_COMPARE (result[0], '~');
+  for (size_t j = 1; j <= len; j++)
+    if (result[j] != 'x')
+      {
+	printf ("  mismatch at position %zu\n", j);
+	support_record_failure ();
+	break;
+      }
+  TEST_COMPARE (result[1 + len], '/');
+
+  wordfree (&we);
+  free (input);
+}
+
+/* Test 3: ~root still resolves to the correct home directory through the
+   __getpwnam_r path.  */
+static void
+test_known_user (void)
+{
+  printf ("info: test_known_user\n");
+
+  /* Look up root's home directory for comparison.  */
+  struct passwd *pw = getpwnam ("root");
+  if (pw == NULL || pw->pw_dir == NULL)
+    {
+      printf ("  SKIP: cannot look up root\n");
+      return;
+    }
+
+  char *expected = xasprintf ("%s/file", pw->pw_dir);
+
+  wordexp_t we = { 0 };
+  TEST_COMPARE (wordexp ("~root/file", &we, 0), 0);
+  TEST_COMPARE (we.we_wordc, 1);
+  TEST_COMPARE_STRING (we.we_wordv[0], expected);
+
+  wordfree (&we);
+  free (expected);
+}
+
+/* Test 4: Bare tilde expands to $HOME.  */
+static void
+test_bare_tilde (void)
+{
+  printf ("info: test_bare_tilde\n");
+
+  const char *home = getenv ("HOME");
+  if (home == NULL)
+    {
+      printf ("  SKIP: HOME is not set\n");
+      return;
+    }
+
+  wordexp_t we = { 0 };
+  TEST_COMPARE (wordexp ("~", &we, 0), 0);
+  TEST_COMPARE (we.we_wordc, 1);
+  TEST_COMPARE_STRING (we.we_wordv[0], home);
+
+  wordfree (&we);
+}
+
+/* Test 5: Short non-existent username falls back to literal ~username output,
+   exercising the invalid-login-name path.  */
+static void
+test_unknown_user (void)
+{
+  printf ("info: test_unknown_user\n");
+
+  /* Pick a username that is extremely unlikely to exist.  */
+  wordexp_t we = { 0 };
+  TEST_COMPARE (wordexp ("~no_such_user_xyzzy42", &we, 0), 0);
+  TEST_COMPARE (we.we_wordc, 1);
+  TEST_COMPARE_STRING (we.we_wordv[0], "~no_such_user_xyzzy42");
+
+  wordfree (&we);
+}
+
+/* Test 6: Tilde with username and WRDE_APPEND — exercises parse_tilde's
+   interaction with the WRDE_APPEND word list.  */
+static void
+test_tilde_with_append (void)
+{
+  printf ("info: test_tilde_with_append\n");
+
+  const char *home = getenv ("HOME");
+  if (home == NULL)
+    {
+      printf ("  SKIP: HOME is not set\n");
+      return;
+    }
+
+  wordexp_t we = { 0 };
+  TEST_COMPARE (wordexp ("first", &we, 0), 0);
+
+  TEST_COMPARE (wordexp ("~/path", &we, WRDE_APPEND), 0);
+  TEST_COMPARE (we.we_wordc, 2);
+  TEST_COMPARE_STRING (we.we_wordv[0], "first");
+
+  char *expected = xasprintf ("%s/path", home);
+  TEST_COMPARE_STRING (we.we_wordv[1], expected);
+
+  wordfree (&we);
+  free (expected);
+}
+
+static int
+do_test (void)
+{
+  test_known_user ();
+  test_bare_tilde ();
+  test_unknown_user ();
+  test_tilde_with_append ();
+
+  support_isolate_in_subprocess (subprocess_small_stack,
+				 test_long_username);
+
+  support_isolate_in_subprocess (subprocess_small_stack,
+				 test_scratch_buffer_growth);
+
+  return 0;
+}
+
+#include <support/test-driver.c>
diff --git a/posix/tst-wordexp-tilde.root/etc/group b/posix/tst-wordexp-tilde.root/etc/group
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1dbf9013ee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/posix/tst-wordexp-tilde.root/etc/group
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+root:x:0:
diff --git a/posix/tst-wordexp-tilde.root/etc/nsswitch.conf b/posix/tst-wordexp-tilde.root/etc/nsswitch.conf
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..098a8d5938
--- /dev/null
+++ b/posix/tst-wordexp-tilde.root/etc/nsswitch.conf
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+passwd: files
+group:  files
+shadow: files
diff --git a/posix/tst-wordexp-tilde.root/etc/passwd b/posix/tst-wordexp-tilde.root/etc/passwd
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..eb85a552ad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/posix/tst-wordexp-tilde.root/etc/passwd
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/sh
diff --git a/posix/wordexp.c b/posix/wordexp.c
index 4a8541add4..f0f69ee85d 100644
--- a/posix/wordexp.c
+++ b/posix/wordexp.c
@@ -335,17 +335,29 @@ parse_tilde (char **word, size_t *word_length, size_t *max_length,
   else
     {
       /* Look up user name in database to get home directory */
-      char *user = strndupa (&words[1 + *offset], i - (1 + *offset));
-      struct passwd pwd, *tpwd;
-      int result;
+      size_t userlen = i - (1 + *offset);
+      /* tmpbuf contains both the user and the __getpwnam_r working area.  */
       struct scratch_buffer tmpbuf;
       scratch_buffer_init (&tmpbuf);
+      if (!scratch_buffer_set_array_size (&tmpbuf, userlen + 1, 1))
+	return WRDE_NOSPACE;
+      char *user = tmpbuf.data;
+      memcpy (user, &words[1 + *offset], userlen);
+      user[userlen] = '\0';
 
-      while ((result = __getpwnam_r (user, &pwd, tmpbuf.data, tmpbuf.length,
+      struct passwd pwd, *tpwd;
+      int result;
+      while ((result = __getpwnam_r (user,
+				     &pwd,
+				     tmpbuf.data + userlen + 1,
+				     tmpbuf.length - userlen - 1,
 				     &tpwd)) != 0
 	     && errno == ERANGE)
-	if (!scratch_buffer_grow (&tmpbuf))
-	  return WRDE_NOSPACE;
+	{
+	  if (!scratch_buffer_grow_preserve (&tmpbuf))
+	    return WRDE_NOSPACE;
+	  user = tmpbuf.data;
+	}
 
       if (result == 0 && tpwd != NULL && pwd.pw_dir)
 	*word = w_addstr (*word, word_length, max_length, pwd.pw_dir);