Re: Clarifying integer overflows vs. signedness errors

[Pavel Kankovsky <peak@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 21 Nov 2006, Steven M. Christey wrote:

> I think of an integer overflow as being: "some computation (addition,
> multiplication) would produce an integer value that is too large to be
> stored in the actual memory location, so the integer wraps to some
> other value."  (let's leave integer "underflow" out of this for the
> moment).

The passing of a signed variable called "len" to an unsigned parameter of
copyout() is a (trivial) computation producing a value that does not fit
into the target type. Negative values "wrap around" and monotonicity
(length <= buffer size) is not preserved.

IMHO these two classes of problems grow from one common root.

--Pavel Kankovsky aka Peak  [ Boycott Microsoft--http://www.vcnet.com/bms ]
"Resistance is futile. Open your source code and prepare for assimilation."