Subject: Re: [PATCH net-next 1/3] virtchnl: fix fake 1-elem arrays in structs allocated as `nents + 1` - 1

From: Kees Cook <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2023 01:27:02 -0700

On Fri, Jul 28, 2023 at 05:52:05PM +0200, Alexander Lobakin wrote:
> The two most problematic virtchnl structures are virtchnl_rss_key and
> virtchnl_rss_lut. Their "flex" arrays have the type of u8, thus, when
> allocating / checking, the actual size is calculated as `sizeof +
> nents - 1 byte`. But their sizeof() is not 1 byte larger than the size
> of such structure with proper flex array, it's two bytes larger due to
> the padding. That said, their size is always 1 byte larger unless
> there are no tail elements -- then it's +2 bytes.
> Add virtchnl_struct_size() macro which will handle this case (and later
> other cases as well). Make its calling conv the same as we call
> struct_size() to allow it to be drop-in, even though it's unlikely to
> become possible to switch to generic API. The macro will calculate a
> proper size of a structure with a flex array at the end, so that it
> becomes transparent for the compilers, but add the difference from the
> old values, so that the real size of sorta-ABI-messages doesn't change.
> Use it on the allocation side in IAVF and the receiving side (defined
> as static inline in virtchnl.h) for the mentioned two structures.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Alexander Lobakin <[email-masked]>

This is a novel approach to solving the ABI issues for a 1-elem
conversion, but I have been convinced it's a workable approach here. :)
Thanks for doing this conversion!

Reviewed-by: Kees Cook <[email-masked]>

-- 
Kees Cook