Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/2] diff: check range before dereferencing an array element

From: Junio C Hamano <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2025 04:01:28 -0700

"Johannes Schindelin via GitGitGadget" <[email-masked]>
writes:

> From: Johannes Schindelin <[email-masked]>
>
> Before accessing an array element at a given index, we should make sure
> that the index is within the desired bounds, not afterwards, otherwise
> it may not make sense to even access the array element in the first
> place.
>
> Pointed out by CodeQL's `cpp/offset-use-before-range-check` rule.
>
> Signed-off-by: Johannes Schindelin <[email-masked]>
> ---
>  diff.c | 2 +-
>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
>
> diff --git a/diff.c b/diff.c
> index c89c15d98e0..18ba3060460 100644
> --- a/diff.c
> +++ b/diff.c
> @@ -892,7 +892,7 @@ static void fill_es_indent_data(struct emitted_diff_symbol *es)
>  
>  	/* skip any \v \f \r at start of indentation */
>  	while (s[off] == '\f' || s[off] == '\v' ||
> -	       (s[off] == '\r' && off < len - 1))
> +	       (off < len - 1 && s[off] == '\r'))
>  		off++;

I suspect that this is another false positive, like Peff pointed out
for [2/2] of these two patches.

Especially if this change squelches the warning.  

If the check against CR for s[off] could be oob without checking how
large 'off' is, then the earlier checks for FF and VT should also be
equally iffy.  After all they are accessing the byte at the same
location.

I think what is going on is that the correctness of the code depends
on s[] having a sentinel (which is not FF/VT/CR; I do not offhand
know if it is NUL terminated or LF at the end of line) so any byte
other than FF/VT/CR that are in the leading part of the line would
cause us to exit the loop safely before going beyond the end of the
array s[].  CR alone is special cased because we want to treat it
like FF/VT only if it is not a part of the EOL CR/LF (hence "is our
CR at one before the end of the line?" check).