The AMDGPU power management sysfs store functions accept whitespace-only
strings when they should reject them with -EINVAL. This was discovered via
systematic fuzzing of sysfs interfaces crossing the user/kernel trust
boundary.
Impact:
- Whitespace-only writes (e.g., "\n", " ") can cause unexpected behavior
- Better input validation at user/kernel trust boundary
- Defense-in-depth improvement
Root Cause:
The sysfs_streq() function matches whitespace-only strings against empty
string, allowing invalid input to be processed.
Fix:
Add explicit validation at the start of each affected store function:
if (count == 0 || sysfs_streq(buf, ""))
return -EINVAL;
This rejects whitespace-only inputs before they are processed. Note that
write() calls with count=0 (truly empty strings) are handled by the VFS
layer before reaching the sysfs .store() callback - the VFS returns 0
(success) without calling the kernel function. This is POSIX-compliant
behavior and cannot be changed at the kernel driver level.
What This Patch Fixes:
- Whitespace-only strings: "\n", " ", " ", etc. are now rejected
- Defense-in-depth: Explicit validation at trust boundary
- Code clarity: Intent to reject invalid input is explicit
What This Patch Cannot Fix:
- write(fd, "", 0) returning success - this is VFS layer behavior
- Fuzzer tests for empty strings (count=0) will still report "accepted"
because the VFS handles this before the kernel callback
Test Results After Fix:
- Whitespace strings ("\n", " ") now properly rejected
- Empty string tests (count=0) still show as "accepted" due to VFS behavior
- Overall improvement in input validation robustness
- No impact on valid inputs
This is a defense-in-depth improvement that hardens input validation
even though VFS layer behavior prevents catching all edge cases.
Tested: amd_fuzzing_sysfs IGT test
Cc: Christian König <christian.koenig@amd.com> Cc: Alex Deucher <alexander.deucher@amd.com> Cc: Jesse Zhang <jesse.zhang@amd.com> Signed-off-by: Vitaly Prosyak <vitaly.prosyak@amd.com> Acked-by: Alex Deucher <alexander.deucher@amd.com> Signed-off-by: Alex Deucher <alexander.deucher@amd.com>