[clang] [compiler-rt] [ASan] Document define to disable container overflow checks at compile time. (PR #163468)
Paddy McDonald via cfe-commits
cfe-commits at lists.llvm.org
Wed Oct 15 14:21:13 PDT 2025
https://github.com/padriff updated https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/pull/163468
>From 1755359430f780b0fe904dcaf28219e4b3633f24 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Paddy McDonald <padriff at hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2025 15:41:13 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] Document a define to allow library developers to support
disabling AddressSanitizer's container overflow detection in template code at
compile time.
The primary motivation is to reduce false positives in environments where
libraries and frameworks that cannot be recompiled with sanitizers enabled
are called from application code. This supports disabling checks when the
runtime environment cannot be reliably controlled to use ASAN_OPTIONS.
Key changes:
- Update documentation in AddressSanitizer.rst to suggest and illustrate
use of the define
- Add details of the define in PrintContainerOverflowHint()
- Add test disable_container_overflow_checks to verify new hints on the
error and fill the testing gap that ASAN_OPTIONS=detect_container_overflow=0
works
This requires no compiler changes and should be supportable cross compiler toolchains.
An RFC has been opened to discuss: https://discourse.llvm.org/t/rfc-add-fsanitize-address-disable-container-overflow-flag-to-addresssanitizer/88349
---
clang/docs/AddressSanitizer.rst | 50 +++++++++++++++++++
compiler-rt/lib/asan/asan_errors.cpp | 14 ++++--
.../disable_container_overflow_checks.cpp | 50 +++++++++++++++++++
3 files changed, 109 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
create mode 100644 compiler-rt/test/asan/TestCases/disable_container_overflow_checks.cpp
diff --git a/clang/docs/AddressSanitizer.rst b/clang/docs/AddressSanitizer.rst
index 21e1a3652192e..92caa596a3b26 100644
--- a/clang/docs/AddressSanitizer.rst
+++ b/clang/docs/AddressSanitizer.rst
@@ -164,6 +164,19 @@ To summarize: ``-fsanitize-address-use-after-return=<mode>``
* ``always``: Enables detection of UAR errors in all cases. (reduces code
size, but not as much as ``never``).
+Container Overflow Detection
+----------------------------
+
+AddressSanitizer can detect overflows in containers with custom allocators
+(such as std::vector) where the Library developers have added calls into the
+AddressSanitizer runtime to indicate which memory is poisoned etc.
+
+In environments where not all the process binaries can be recompiled with
+AddressSanitizer enabled, these checks can cause false positives.
+
+See `Disabling container overflow checks`_ for details on suppressing false
+positives.
+
Memory leak detection
---------------------
@@ -242,6 +255,43 @@ AddressSanitizer also supports
works similar to ``__attribute__((no_sanitize("address")))``, but it also
prevents instrumentation performed by other sanitizers.
+Disabling container overflow checks
+-----------------------------------
+
+Runtime suppression
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+Container overflow checks can be disabled at runtime using
+``ASAN_OPTIONS=detect_container_overflow=0``
+
+Compile time suppression
+^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
+
+``-D__ASAN_DISABLE_CONTAINER_OVERFLOW__`` can be used at compile time to
+disable container overflow checks if the container library has added support
+for this define.
+
+To support a standard way to disable container overflow checks at compile time,
+Library developers should use this definition in conjunction with the
+AddressSanitizer feature test to conditionally include container overflow
+related code compiled into user code:
+
+The recommended form is
+
+.. code-block:: c
+
+ #if __has_feature(address_sanitizer) && !__ASAN_DISABLE_CONTAINER_OVERFLOW__
+ // Container overflow detection enabled - include annotations
+ __sanitizer_annotate_contiguous_container(beg, end, old_mid, new_mid);
+ #endif
+
+This pattern ensures that:
+
+* Container overflow annotations are only included when AddressSanitizer is
+ enabled
+* Container overflow detection can be disabled by passing
+ ``-D__ASAN_DISABLE_CONTAINER_OVERFLOW__`` to the compiler
+
Suppressing Errors in Recompiled Code (Ignorelist)
--------------------------------------------------
diff --git a/compiler-rt/lib/asan/asan_errors.cpp b/compiler-rt/lib/asan/asan_errors.cpp
index 2a207cd06ccac..ee71c789116c0 100644
--- a/compiler-rt/lib/asan/asan_errors.cpp
+++ b/compiler-rt/lib/asan/asan_errors.cpp
@@ -514,11 +514,15 @@ ErrorGeneric::ErrorGeneric(u32 tid, uptr pc_, uptr bp_, uptr sp_, uptr addr,
}
static void PrintContainerOverflowHint() {
- Printf("HINT: if you don't care about these errors you may set "
- "ASAN_OPTIONS=detect_container_overflow=0.\n"
- "If you suspect a false positive see also: "
- "https://github.com/google/sanitizers/wiki/"
- "AddressSanitizerContainerOverflow.\n");
+ Printf(
+ "HINT: if you don't care about these errors you may set "
+ "ASAN_OPTIONS=detect_container_overflow=0.\n"
+ "If supported by the container library, pass "
+ "-D__ASAN_DISABLE_CONTAINER_OVERFLOW__ to the compiler to disable "
+ " instrumentation.\n"
+ "If you suspect a false positive see also: "
+ "https://github.com/google/sanitizers/wiki/"
+ "AddressSanitizerContainerOverflow.\n");
}
static void PrintShadowByte(InternalScopedString *str, const char *before,
diff --git a/compiler-rt/test/asan/TestCases/disable_container_overflow_checks.cpp b/compiler-rt/test/asan/TestCases/disable_container_overflow_checks.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..c41e9bfa80915
--- /dev/null
+++ b/compiler-rt/test/asan/TestCases/disable_container_overflow_checks.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+// Test crash gives guidance on -D__ASAN_DISABLE_CONTAINER_OVERFLOW__ and
+// ASAN_OPTIONS=detect_container_overflow=0
+// RUN: %clangxx_asan -O %s -o %t
+// RUN: not %run %t crash 2>&1 | FileCheck --check-prefix=CHECK-CRASH %s
+//
+// Test overflow checks can be disabled at runtime with
+// ASAN_OPTIONS=detect_container_overflow=0
+// RUN: %env_asan_opts=detect_container_overflow=0 %run %t crash 2>&1 | FileCheck --check-prefix=CHECK-NOCRASH %s
+//
+// Illustrate use of -D__ASAN_DISABLE_CONTAINER_OVERFLOW__ flag to suppress
+// overflow checks at compile time.
+// RUN: %clangxx_asan -D__ASAN_DISABLE_CONTAINER_OVERFLOW__ -O %s -o %t-no-overflow
+// RUN: %run %t-no-overflow crash 2>&1 | FileCheck --check-prefix=CHECK-NOCRASH %s
+//
+
+#include <assert.h>
+#include <string.h>
+#include <stdio.h>
+
+// public definition of __sanitizer_annotate_contiguous_container
+#include "sanitizer/common_interface_defs.h"
+
+static volatile int one = 1;
+
+int TestCrash() {
+ long t[100];
+ t[60] = 0;
+#if __has_feature(address_sanitizer) && !__ASAN_DISABLE_CONTAINER_OVERFLOW__
+ __sanitizer_annotate_contiguous_container(&t[0], &t[0] + 100, &t[0] + 100,
+ &t[0] + 50);
+#endif
+ // CHECK-CRASH: AddressSanitizer: container-overflow
+ // CHECK-CRASH: ASAN_OPTIONS=detect_container_overflow=0
+ // CHECK-CRASH: __ASAN_DISABLE_CONTAINER_OVERFLOW__
+ // CHECK-NOCRASH-NOT: ASAN_OPTIONS=detect_container_overflow=0
+ // CHECK-NOCRASH-NOT: __ASAN_DISABLE_CONTAINER_OVERFLOW__
+ return (int)t[60 * one]; // Touches the poisoned memory.
+}
+
+int main(int argc, char **argv) {
+
+ int retval = 0;
+ assert(argc == 2);
+ if (!strcmp(argv[1], "crash"))
+ retval=TestCrash();
+
+ printf("Exiting main\n");
+
+ return retval;
+}
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