buffer overflow in boost::container::flat_map on FreeBSD

[arthaud]

Hi everyone,

I found a bug in boost::container::flat_map on FreeBSD.

System: FreeBSD 12.0 Compiler: Clang 6.0.1 with libc++ (default compiler on FreeBSD) Boost: master branch on Github

See the following example:

#include <cstdio>
#include <boost/container/flat_map.hpp>

int main() {
  boost::container::flat_map<std::pair<char, char>, char> map;
  map.emplace(std::make_pair(1, 2), 3);
  printf("%d, %d, %d\n",
    map.begin()->first.first,
    map.begin()->first.second,
    map.begin()->second);
  return 0;
}

Output: 2, 3, 0 Expected: 1, 2, 3

flat_map uses boost::container::dtl::pair internally and uses reinterpret_casts to expose a std::pair in the iterators, see flat_map.hpp#L66 and flat_map.hpp#L547

The problem is that std::pair and boost::container::dtl::pair have a different memory layout!

See the following example:

#include <cstdio>
#include <boost/container/flat_map.hpp>

int main() {
  std::pair< std::pair< char, char >, char > std_pair;
  boost::container::dtl::pair< std::pair< char, char >, char > boost_pair;
  printf("%lu %p %p\n", sizeof(std_pair), &std_pair, &std_pair.first);
  printf("%lu %p %p\n", sizeof(boost_pair), &boost_pair, &boost_pair.first);
  return 0;
}

Output:

4 0x7fffffffe738 0x7fffffffe739
3 0x7fffffffe730 0x7fffffffe730

std::pair has a weird padding of 1 byte at the beginning. I think this is related to this patch: https://reviews.llvm.org/D25389 I think there might be a problem with the base class __non_trivially_copyable_base. It looks like the EBO doesn't work properly.

I'm not sure what to do to fix this. I think the C++ standard doesn't enforce the layout of std::pair to be {first, second}, so maybe boost shouldn't assume this.

To reproduce this, I used the following virtual machine: https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/VM-IMAGES/12.0-RELEASE/amd64/Latest/ Upstream bug in IKOS: https://github.com/NASA-SW-VnV/ikos/issues/22

[arthaud]

It looks like this will be fixed in libc++: https://bugs.llvm.org/show_bug.cgi?id=40230

[igaztanaga]

Thanks for the report. This nasty pair class was used to portably support all compilers (including C++03 compilers, where std::pair had no move semantics or placement constructors.) One workaround is to embed an internal std::pair inside the dtl::pair class to guarantee excatly the same memory layout.

The second step would be to use the native std::pair on compilers withou full C++11 support.

I'll try the first workaround in the following days and inform about progress in this bug.

[igaztanaga]

The first workaround is not possible because pair exposes "first" and "second" as public members. We can try to reproduce the padding in libcpp with the following patch. Could please test it, as I haven't been able to set up the virtual machine yet? boost_container_libcpp.txt

[arthaud]

Thanks for the patch. Unfortunately I'm getting the following error:

$ c++ test.cpp -I/tmp/boost/include
In file included from test.cpp:3:
In file included from /tmp/boost/include/container/include/boost/container/flat_map.hpp:29:
In file included from /tmp/boost/include/container/include/boost/container/detail/flat_tree.hpp:29:
/tmp/boost/include/container/include/boost/container/detail/pair.hpp:211:67: error: too many arguments provided to function-like macro invocation
   : pair_padding<T1, T2, offsetof(std::pair<T1 BOOST_MOVE_I T2>, first) >
                                                                  ^
/usr/include/sys/cdefs.h:476:9: note: macro '__offsetof' defined here
#define __offsetof(type, field)  __builtin_offsetof(type, field)
        ^
In file included from test.cpp:3:
In file included from /tmp/boost/include/container/include/boost/container/flat_map.hpp:29:
In file included from /tmp/boost/include/container/include/boost/container/detail/flat_tree.hpp:29:
/tmp/boost/include/container/include/boost/container/detail/pair.hpp:211:27: error: use of undeclared identifier '__offsetof'
   : pair_padding<T1, T2, offsetof(std::pair<T1 BOOST_MOVE_I T2>, first) >
                          ^
/usr/include/stddef.h:75:31: note: expanded from macro 'offsetof'
#define offsetof(type, field)   __offsetof(type, field)
                                ^
In file included from test.cpp:3:
In file included from /tmp/boost/include/container/include/boost/container/flat_map.hpp:29:
In file included from /tmp/boost/include/container/include/boost/container/detail/flat_tree.hpp:29:
/tmp/boost/include/container/include/boost/container/detail/pair.hpp:213:1: error: expected class name
{
^
3 errors generated.

Regarding the patch, I would like to suggest to check for _LIBCPP_DEPRECATED_ABI_DISABLE_PAIR_TRIVIAL_COPY_CTOR instead of _LIBCPP_VERSION. This will avoid possible regressions on most systems and save compile time.

[arthaud]

It compiles with -std=c++11 but the bug is still there, I'm trying to investigate this.

EDIT: It was an error on my side. It still doesn't compile with -std=c++11

EDIT 2: It looks like a common macro problem, where the comma in std::pair< T1, T2 > is treated as an argument separator for the macro offset_of. This is probably why you tried to use BOOST_MOVE_I but it didn't work.

[igaztanaga]

I've reproduced the problem in Linux using clang -stdlib=libc++ and defining "_LIBCPP_DEPRECATED_ABI_DISABLE_PAIR_TRIVIAL_COPY_CTOR".

New patch attached, the patch boost_container_pair_libcpp_patch.txt compiles in C++03 and C++2a modes.

[arthaud]

I confirm that the patch fixes the issue, thank you.

[igaztanaga]

Many thanks for the report and help solving the issue. Fixed in commit:

https://github.com/boostorg/container/commit/2b5197a5cb65a752b72296e441b2b211ebe8d2d2

[igaztanaga]

There was a typo in the committed patch, corrected with commit:

https://github.com/boostorg/container/commit/80789255b9e143e2c23e171f63872e001bc1b5c5