[PATCH v2] posix: Fix stack overflow in wordexp tilde expansion (BZ 34091, CVE-2026-6791)
Adhemerval Zanella
adhemerval.zanella@linaro.org
Tue Jun 16 12:49:25 GMT 2026
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.
---
posix/Makefile | 1 +
posix/tst-wordexp-tilde.c | 244 ++++++++++++++++++
posix/tst-wordexp-tilde.root/etc/group | 1 +
.../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(-)
create mode 100644 posix/tst-wordexp-tilde.c
create mode 100644 posix/tst-wordexp-tilde.root/etc/group
create mode 100644 posix/tst-wordexp-tilde.root/etc/nsswitch.conf
create mode 100644 posix/tst-wordexp-tilde.root/etc/passwd
diff --git a/posix/Makefile b/posix/Makefile
index 0fa532396fd..d9f897faa16 100644
--- a/posix/Makefile
+++ b/posix/Makefile
@@ -360,6 +360,7 @@ 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 00000000000..1661603681a
--- /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 00000000000..1dbf9013eeb
--- /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 00000000000..098a8d59382
--- /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 00000000000..eb85a552ad2
--- /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 4a8541add49..f0f69ee85d5 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);
--
2.43.0
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