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authorUlises Mendez Martinez <umendez@google.com>2026-09-04 15:07:09 +0000
committerJosh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>2026-09-13 18:15:43 -0700
commit7e61560628d17ea6b1d8ee370f6d42694cff8758 (patch)
treee6080164b2f4c4c419894bdb3ce4d956ca9a98c5 /Documentation/dev-tools/ubsan.rst
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objtool: Validate disassembler headers in libopcodes probegrafted
commit 3f2de814c059 ("objtool: Fix libopcodes linking with static libraries") tested for libopcodes availability by linking a test snippet with a forward declaration of disassemble_init_for_target(). However, testing symbol linkage with an extern declaration only verifies the presence of the library (.so/.a) and bypasses checking for development headers (binutils-dev). On systems where libopcodes is present without development headers installed, the probe succeeds, enabling BUILD_DISAS. Subsequent compilation of objtool then fails: fatal error: 'bfd.h' file not found 113 | #include <bfd.h> Additionally, the probe invokes $(HOSTCC) without $(HOSTCFLAGS), ignoring any sysroot or include flags specified for the host compiler. Fix this by including <bfd.h> and <dis-asm.h> directly in the test snippet, passing $(HOSTCFLAGS) so host compiler options are respected, and defining PACKAGE="objtool" to satisfy the configuration check in <bfd.h>. Fixes: 3f2de814c059 ("objtool: Fix libopcodes linking with static libraries") Fixes: 436326bc525d ("objtool: fix build failure due to missing libopcodes check") Reported-by: Alice Ryhl <aliceryhl@google.com> Assisted-by: Antigravity:Gemini-Next Signed-off-by: Ulises Mendez Martinez <umendez@google.com> Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260904150710.2997558-1-umendez@google.com Signed-off-by: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@kernel.org>
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+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+Undefined Behavior Sanitizer - UBSAN
+====================================
+
+UBSAN is a runtime undefined behaviour checker.
+
+UBSAN uses compile-time instrumentation to catch undefined behavior (UB).
+Compiler inserts code that perform certain kinds of checks before operations
+that may cause UB. If check fails (i.e. UB detected) __ubsan_handle_*
+function called to print error message.
+
+GCC has that feature since 4.9.x [1_] (see ``-fsanitize=undefined`` option and
+its suboptions). GCC 5.x has more checkers implemented [2_].
+
+Report example
+--------------
+
+::
+
+ ================================================================================
+ UBSAN: Undefined behaviour in ../include/linux/bitops.h:110:33
+ shift exponent 32 is to large for 32-bit type 'unsigned int'
+ CPU: 0 PID: 0 Comm: swapper Not tainted 4.4.0-rc1+ #26
+ 0000000000000000 ffffffff82403cc8 ffffffff815e6cd6 0000000000000001
+ ffffffff82403cf8 ffffffff82403ce0 ffffffff8163a5ed 0000000000000020
+ ffffffff82403d78 ffffffff8163ac2b ffffffff815f0001 0000000000000002
+ Call Trace:
+ [<ffffffff815e6cd6>] dump_stack+0x45/0x5f
+ [<ffffffff8163a5ed>] ubsan_epilogue+0xd/0x40
+ [<ffffffff8163ac2b>] __ubsan_handle_shift_out_of_bounds+0xeb/0x130
+ [<ffffffff815f0001>] ? radix_tree_gang_lookup_slot+0x51/0x150
+ [<ffffffff8173c586>] _mix_pool_bytes+0x1e6/0x480
+ [<ffffffff83105653>] ? dmi_walk_early+0x48/0x5c
+ [<ffffffff8173c881>] add_device_randomness+0x61/0x130
+ [<ffffffff83105b35>] ? dmi_save_one_device+0xaa/0xaa
+ [<ffffffff83105653>] dmi_walk_early+0x48/0x5c
+ [<ffffffff831066ae>] dmi_scan_machine+0x278/0x4b4
+ [<ffffffff8111d58a>] ? vprintk_default+0x1a/0x20
+ [<ffffffff830ad120>] ? early_idt_handler_array+0x120/0x120
+ [<ffffffff830b2240>] setup_arch+0x405/0xc2c
+ [<ffffffff830ad120>] ? early_idt_handler_array+0x120/0x120
+ [<ffffffff830ae053>] start_kernel+0x83/0x49a
+ [<ffffffff830ad120>] ? early_idt_handler_array+0x120/0x120
+ [<ffffffff830ad386>] x86_64_start_reservations+0x2a/0x2c
+ [<ffffffff830ad4f3>] x86_64_start_kernel+0x16b/0x17a
+ ================================================================================
+
+Usage
+-----
+
+To enable UBSAN, configure the kernel with::
+
+ CONFIG_UBSAN=y
+
+To exclude files from being instrumented use::
+
+ UBSAN_SANITIZE_main.o := n
+
+and to exclude all targets in one directory use::
+
+ UBSAN_SANITIZE := n
+
+When disabled for all targets, specific files can be enabled using::
+
+ UBSAN_SANITIZE_main.o := y
+
+Detection of unaligned accesses controlled through the separate option -
+CONFIG_UBSAN_ALIGNMENT. It's off by default on architectures that support
+unaligned accesses (CONFIG_HAVE_EFFICIENT_UNALIGNED_ACCESS=y). One could
+still enable it in config, just note that it will produce a lot of UBSAN
+reports.
+
+References
+----------
+
+.. _1: https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc-4.9.0/gcc/Debugging-Options.html
+.. _2: https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Debugging-Options.html
+.. _3: https://clang.llvm.org/docs/UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer.html