Subject: Re: [BUG] git stash show -p with invalid option aborts with double-free in show_stash() (strvec_clear)

From: Jeff King <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2025 12:48:20 -0400

On Fri, Sep 19, 2025 at 09:00:12AM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:

> The easier, more performant, and closer to the original design
> around the revisions API is to do this:
> 
> diff --git c/builtin/stash.c w/builtin/stash.c
> index f5ddee5c7f..b6312b1b70 100644
> --- c/builtin/stash.c
> +++ w/builtin/stash.c
> @@ -1016,6 +1016,8 @@ static int show_stash(int argc, const char **argv, const char *prefix,
>  	}
>  
>  	argc = setup_revisions(revision_args.nr, revision_args.v, &rev, NULL);
> +	for (i = argc; i < revision_args.nr; i++)
> +		revision_args.v[i] = NULL;
>  	if (argc > 1)
>  		goto usage;
>  	if (!rev.diffopt.output_format) {

I think we'll have leaked the string holding "-p" in this instance,
though. We probably need to pass in a setup_revision_opt struct with its
free_removed_argv_elements flag set.

That's true even without your patch, too, of course. I'm mildly
surprised that the test suite doesn't hit this in leak-checking mode,
since it is a problem any time we rearrange argv. E.g., I think:

  git stash show -p --

leaks (I was surprised that "stash show -p --stat" didn't leak, but it
doesn't seem to rearrange?).

Another interesting thing about your patch above is that it fills the
strvec with a bunch of NULL entries. Which happens to work, because
free(NULL) is a noop, but I think may be subtly violating assumptions
made about strvecs. Probably:

  revision_args.nr = setup_revisions(...);

fits my mental model better, though that is violating a different strvec
invariant now (that the .v[.nr] is always NULL). I think
setup_revisions() is a little sloppy not to set argv[argc] to NULL
itself.

> A less performant but may in the longer term safer alternative is to
> change the caller-callee contract around setup_revisions() so that
> the later "unused" slots in the argv array is NULLed before
> returning to the caller, i.e. instead of leaving
> 
>     .v = { "show", "--no-such-option", "--no-such-option", NULL }
> 
> in the revision_args.v[] array, teach setup_revisions() to leave
> 
>     .v = { "show", "--no-such-option", NULL, NULL }
> 
> there (again, we cannot do anything about .nr that is only available
> to the caller).

I think we should consider a fix like this. Grepping for the
free_removed_argv_elements option, there are a few other spots that
correctly use that flag, but aren't updating the strvec argc. E.g.,
bisect_rev_setup(). So they're going to run into the same problem.

I wonder if the best solution is a setup_revisions() wrapper for strvecs
that will:

  - turn on the free_removed_argv_elements option automatically

  - collect the return value of setup_revisions() and use it to fix
    the .nr field of the strvec

  - restore the NULL invariant at the end of the array (though I would
    also be happy if setup_revisions() just did this itself)

-Peff