[R-package] warning on R-devel with clang 15: 'format string is not a string literal'

[jameslamb]

Description

With latest R-devel (R Under development (unstable) (2023-11-24 r85626)) + clang 15.0.7, R CMD check raises the following WARNING.

* checking whether package 'lightgbm' can be installed ... [108s/108s] WARNING
Found the following significant warnings:
  lightgbm_R.cpp:159:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:191:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  ....

full logs (click me)

Found the following significant warnings:
  lightgbm_R.cpp:159:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:191:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:216:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:243:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:260:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:308:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:320:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:330:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:362:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:400:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:419:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:430:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:440:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:451:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:462:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:478:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:493:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:507:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:538:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:548:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:558:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:568:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:579:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:590:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:599:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:608:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:629:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:637:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:648:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:658:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:668:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:717:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:732:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:744:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:756:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:794:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:813:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:848:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:876:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:905:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:934:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:951:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:979:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:1049:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:1073:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:1098:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:1109:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:1122:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:1146:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:1171:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:1191:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  lightgbm_R.cpp:1212:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
See '/__w/LightGBM/LightGBM/lightgbm.Rcheck/00install.out' for details.

Reproducible example

See the latest r-package (debian, R-devel, clang) CI job run on master (build link).

That can be reproduced using this configuration:

LightGBM/.github/workflows/r_package.yml

Lines 260 to 265 in 2ee3ec8

	test-r-debian-clang:
	name: r-package (debian, R-devel, clang)
	timeout-minutes: 60
	runs-on: ubuntu-latest
	container: rhub/debian-clang-devel
	steps:

Environment info

LightGBM version or commit hash: 2ee3ec8

Additional Comments

This would likely lead to a rejection of a new submission on CRAN.

It will also cause CI failures in this repo until it's either fixed or until we temporarily allow that WARNING in CI.

All of the lines noted in warnings are uses of the R_API_END() preprocessor macro

LightGBM/R-package/src/lightgbm_R.cpp

Line 159 in 2ee3ec8

R_API_END();

which looks like this:

LightGBM/R-package/src/lightgbm_R.cpp

Lines 38 to 44 in 2ee3ec8

	#define R_API_END() } \
	catch(LGBM_R_ErrorClass &cont) { R_ContinueUnwind(cont.cont_token); } \
	catch(std::exception& ex) { LGBM_R_save_exception_msg(ex); } \
	catch(std::string& ex) { LGBM_R_save_exception_msg(ex); } \
	catch(...) { Rf_error("unknown exception"); } \
	Rf_error(R_errmsg_buffer); \
	return R_NilValue; /* <- won't be reached */

[jameslamb]

This is now being reported as a WARNING on the project's CRAN page as well.

https://cran.r-project.org/web/checks/check_results_lightgbm.html

I will try to put up a PR this week. @shiyu1994 if you get any emails from CRAN about this, please post them here.

[jameslamb]

Running R CMD INSTALL instead of R CMD CHECK, I saw more traceback information:

lightgbm_R.cpp:1191:3: warning: format string is not a string literal (potentially insecure) [-Wformat-security]
  R_API_END();
  ^~~~~~~~~~~
lightgbm_R.cpp:43:12: note: expanded from macro 'R_API_END'
  Rf_error(R_errmsg_buffer); \
           ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
lightgbm_R.cpp:1191:3: note: treat the string as an argument to avoid this
lightgbm_R.cpp:43:12: note: expanded from macro 'R_API_END'
  Rf_error(R_errmsg_buffer); \

That helped to narrow down where the issue was. It appears to be what's discussed over in llvm/llvm-project#56583.

As described in llvm/llvm-project#56583 (comment) specifically, something like printf("%d%d%d") could cause an overflow and the resulting stability and security issues that come with that.

clang is raising a warning here because there's no guarantee that Rf_error() won't be passed some string with formatting stuff like %s in it.

LightGBM/R-package/src/lightgbm_R.cpp

Line 31 in 2ee3ec8

char R_errmsg_buffer[MAX_LENGTH_ERR_MSG];

LightGBM/R-package/src/lightgbm_R.cpp

Line 43 in 2ee3ec8

Rf_error(R_errmsg_buffer); \

I put up #6216 with changes that'll hopefully fix that. I'll move it out of draft if CI passes.

[github-actions]

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