Squashed series of ~50 distinct bugs found during a multi-day
security/correctness audit, ranging from ROM-triggerable heap
corruption and savestate-triggered OOB read primitives down to
obscure cross-platform savestate breakage.
Build is clean on `make platform=unix` with zero new warnings.
CRITICAL (ROM-triggerable, exploitable on the user's machine)
=============================================================
* ines.c iNES 2.0 PRG/CHR exponent overflow leading to undersized
allocation followed by heap buffer overflow on fread (pow() with
attacker-chosen exponent up to 63). Cap exponent at 30 and
compute size in uint32 with explicit cap below 2 GiB before
storing in int.
* ines.c miscROMSize int wraparound from attacker-controlled PRG/
CHR sizes; previous '& 0x8000000' check missed common underflow
cases. Compute in int64 and reject <= 0 or > 128 MiB.
* unif.c MAPR chunk OOB heap read on chunks of size < 4. Validate
chunk size before allocating board-name buffer.
* unif.c chunk size truncation: int conversion + missing cap allowed
a 4 GiB chunk size to wrap. Cap at 16 MiB.
* unif.c FixRomSize infinite loop on size > 0x80000000. Cap input.
* unif.c DINF chunk: months[(m - 1) % 12] is UB for m==0; m comes
from the .unf file. Clamp m into [1..12] before subtracting.
* unif.c NAME chunk: GameInfo->name = malloc(...) was unchecked.
* nsf.c size underflow: FCEU_fgetsize() - 0x80 wraps to ~UINT64_MAX
on tiny files, propagating a huge size into uppow2/FCEU_malloc.
Validate size > 0x80 before subtracting.
* nsf.c NSFMaxBank * 4096 cap tightened from 1<<20 (UB on signed-int
overflow) to 1<<19 (fits in int).
* general.c uppow2 had signed-int UB (1 << 32) and wrapped to 0 for
inputs near uint32 max. Cap at 0x80000000.
* cheat.c SubCheats[256] BSS overflow when more than 256 GG/PAR
substitution cheats are active. The array is adjacent to MMapPtrs[64]
in BSS which is exposed via retro_get_memory_data, making this
overflow visible from outside the core.
* libretro.c retro_cheat_set strcpy stack overflow with arbitrary-
length cheat strings from the frontend. Use strlcpy.
CRITICAL (savestate-triggerable on a malicious .fcs file)
=========================================================
* fds.c FDS savestate OOB read primitive: InDisk loaded from
savestate is used as index into 8-element diskdata[] static
pointer array. A value 8..254 dereferences arbitrary memory as
a pointer (heap-read primitive). Also bounds-checked SelectDisk,
mapperFDS_block, mapperFDS_blockstart, mapperFDS_diskaddr,
mapperFDS_blocklen so blockstart+diskaddr stays within the 65500-
byte disk buffer.
* 11 mappers had savestate-loaded variables masked at write time
but not at restore time, used as indices into fixed arrays:
- 88.c, KS7037.c, 112.c cmd indexes reg[8]
- sachen.c (S8259, S74LS374N) cmd indexes latch[8]
- 357.c dipswitch indexes outer_bank[4]
- unrom512.c flash_state indexes erase_a/d/b[5]
- 368.c preg indexes banks[8]
- 69.c sndcmd indexes sreg[14]
- mmc2and4.c latch0/latch1 index creg[4]
None individually exploitable into RCE - the array writes corrupt
adjacent BSS with constrained data flowing in - but each is an
out-of-bounds read or write from attacker-controllable input.
HIGH (memory-safety, reachable on any load)
===========================================
* fceu-memory.c FCEU_malloc deref-of-NULL on allocation failure
('ret = 0; memset(ret, 0, size);').
* file.c multiple FCEUFILE/MakeMemWrap/MakeMemWrapBuffer unchecked
allocations and unchecked filestream_tell return.
* libretro.c GameInfo NULL-derefs in three entry points
(retro_set_controller_port_device, retro_get_memory_data,
retro_get_memory_size) reachable on operations called before a
successful load.
* libretro.c framebuffer leak ~256 KB per failed FCEUI_LoadGame
(the libretro frontend doesn't call retro_unload_game on a
failed load).
* libretro.c 3DS retro_deinit unchecked linearFree.
* libretro.c stereo / NTSC filter unchecked malloc returns.
* fceu.c FCEUI_LoadGame unchecked GameInfo malloc.
* fds.c SubLoad and FDSLoad unchecked FCEU_malloc on diskdatao
backup buffers (NULL-deref in subsequent memcpy).
* fceu.c AllocGenieRW partial-failure leak: AReadG allocated but
BWriteG malloc fails -> 256 KB leak per retry.
* input/bworld.c Update(): unbounded strcpy from attacker-supplied
data into 20-byte bdata. Replaced with length-bounded copy.
* cart.c setprg2r/4r and setchr1r/2r/4r/8r mask-underflow guards.
SetupCartPRGMapping/SetupCartCHRMapping compute (size >> N) - 1
which underflows to 0xFFFFFFFF for chips smaller than the unit.
setprg8r/16r/32r and setchr8r already had defensive size checks;
the smaller units did not. malee.c (2 KB chip) and mapper 218
(2 KB NTARAM-as-CHR) accidentally avoid OOB; the primitive is
unsafe for any future board.
* video.c FCEU_InitVirtualVideo XBuf/XDBuf partial-failure leak.
* video.c, fceu.c FCEU_DispMessage / FCEU_printf / FCEU_PrintError:
vsprintf into fixed stack buffers replaced with vsnprintf.
* core: validate magic-string read length on FDS/UNIF/NSF load
(reject files too short to contain the magic so previous static
buffer / stack garbage doesn't spuriously match).
LEAKS (every cart load/unload cycle)
====================================
* mmc5.c MMC5 cart-side: WRAM (up to 64K) + MMC5fill (1K) + ExRAM
(1K) leaked per cycle. NSFMMC5_Close existed but was only used
for NSF code path.
* onebus.c Mapper 270/436: 8 KB CHRRAM leaked per cycle.
* 330.c, 375.c, 528.c: 8 KB WRAM each, no Close at all.
CORRECTNESS (UB / ABI / endianness)
===================================
* fceu-endian.c FlipByteOrder loop bound was 'count' instead of
'count/2', making it a no-op for every even count and silently
breaking savestate portability for every FCEUSTATE_RLSB-marked
field. The '#ifndef GEKKO' workarounds scattered through the
codebase (sound.c, vrc7.c, vrc6.c) were symptoms of this root
cause.
* state.c AddExState bounds check ran AFTER writing the entry, so
when SFEXINDEX hit the 63-entry cap the next call would write
the entry then immediately overwrite it with the terminator.
* state.c FCEUSS_Save_Mem: post-save callback was guarded by
'if (SPreSave)' instead of 'if (SPostSave)'.
* Sequence-point UB in counter expressions across 4 board files,
e.g. 'x = !x ? a : --x' and 'x = ++x % n'. GCC -Wsequence-point
flags all five sites (285.c, 413.c, asic_mmc3.c, jyasic.c).
* SFORMAT size mismatches between declared variable type and
AddExState size argument:
- asic_vrc3.c VRC3_count/VRC3_reload (uint16, saved as 1 byte)
- mmc3.c m555_count (uint32, saved as 2 bytes), m555_count_-
expired (uint8, saved as 2 bytes - OOB write into adjacent
BSS).
* unrom512.c UNROM-512 mapper 30 .srm save format: host-endian
uint32 flash write counters. Now stored as LE on disk regardless
of host (Battle Kid 2, Twin Dragons, Lizard, Sole, etc.).
* ~70 multi-byte single-variable SFORMAT/AddExState entries across
36 board files were saved as host-byte-order. After the
FlipByteOrder fix, these are now byte-swapped on BE so cross-
platform savestates round-trip correctly.
* coolgirl.c new ExStateLE() macro added; 22 multi-byte sites.
* pic16c5x.c 11 multi-byte AddExState calls (m_PC, m_PREVPC,
m_CONFIG, m_WDT, m_prescaler, m_opcode, m_STACK[0/1], m_icount,
m_delay_timer, m_rtcc, m_inst_cycles, m_clock2cycle).
* onebus.c PowerJoy Supermax submapper detection used non-portable
*(uint32*)&info->MD5 cast that read different bytes on LE vs BE.
* fds.c clean up redundant FCEUSTATE_RLSB encoding in AddExState
calls that also passed type=1 (idempotent OR; readability fix).
DOCUMENTATION
=============
* input.c UpdateGP's *(uint32*)data cast looks like a typical
endian bug but is actually correct (the libretro frontend builds
JSReturn with matching host-uint32 shifts). Comment added to
prevent future "fixes" from breaking it.
Limitations not addressed
=========================
* Element-stride-aware byte swapping. The savestate byte-swap
mechanism (FlipByteOrder over the entire SFORMAT entry buffer)
is structurally wrong for arrays of multi-byte values: it
reverses the whole buffer end-to-end instead of byte-swapping
each element. Several places that need cross-platform-portable
arrays (VRC7 sound state, jyasic chr[8]) work around this by
either splitting arrays into per-element SFORMAT entries (n106
PlayIndex, bandai reg) or by skipping save entirely on BE via
#ifndef GEKKO. A proper fix would extend the size encoding with
an element-stride field. Left for a future change because it
would change the savestate format.
* Strict-aliasing UB in ppu.c (around 9 sites doing
*(uint32*)uint8_buf for fast 4-byte writes via FCEU_dwmemset).
Works in practice with all common compilers because the patterns
are byte-symmetric, but is formally UB.
* FCEU_gmalloc calls exit(1) on OOM. A libretro core should never
exit() because that takes down the whole frontend. Used by
100+ call sites; refactoring to return-NULL is out of scope here.
Testing
=======
* Build: clean on `make platform=unix` with -O2; no new warnings.
* FlipByteOrder fix verified by hand-trace and a standalone unit
test for counts 2, 4, 8.
* uppow2 fix verified by unit test across 13 boundary cases.
* SFORMAT size mismatches and missing-RLSB cases identified by
Python static-analysis scripts that cross-reference SFORMAT
entries against variable declarations.
* iNES 2.0 exponent fix verified by hand-tracing what byte 0xFF
produces post-fix: exp=30 (capped), mult=7, size=3 GiB nominal,
capped to 1 GiB, capped to 2 GiB by uppow2, FCEU_malloc returns
NULL on most systems, loader returns 0. No heap overflow for
any input byte.
* Savestate-loaded array index audit: built a Python scanner that
extracts each AddExState/SFORMAT entry and cross-references the
variable name against array-index uses in the same file. All
flagged sites covered.
* A libFuzzer harness and seed corpus generator (fuzz_main.c,
gen_seed_corpus.py) accompany this submission for ongoing
regression testing.
