Gcal throws "***buffer overflow detected***: terminated" error

Ask Fedora
,
1

I am on Fedora 38. Suddenly, I see that the GNU’s gcal program failing with a ***buffer overflow detected***: terminated error. This effectively renders this program to not be usable anymore. Any pointers on how to go about this, will be greatly appreciated.

Here is the error and this happens in all the latest 3 kernels, I ran it under: 6.3.8, 6.3.7, and 6.3.6.

[user@fedora ~]$   gcal ..
*** buffer overflow detected ***: terminated
Aborted (core dumped)

The gcal version is 4.1.

[user@fedora ~]$   gcal --version
gcal (GNU cal) 4.1
Copyright (c) 1994, 95, 96, 1997, 2000 Thomas Esken
Copyright (c) 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.
There is NO warranty, without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Here is my environment details:

System:
  Host: fedora Kernel: 6.3.8-200.fc38.x86_64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64
    Desktop: GNOME v: 44.2 Distro: Fedora release 38 (Thirty Eight)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Inspiron 15 3511 v: N/A
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Dell model: 0042CN v: A00 serial: <superuser required> UEFI: Dell
    v: 1.22.1 date: 05/10/2023
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 34.6 Wh (100.0%) condition: 34.6/40.3 Wh (85.8%)
CPU:
  Info: quad core model: 11th Gen Intel Core i5-1135G7 bits: 64 type: MT MCP
    cache: L2: 5 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 2704 min/max: 400/4200 cores: 1: 1900 2: 2986 3: 2078
    4: 3800 5: 2282 6: 1914 7: 2876 8: 3800
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel TigerLake-LP GT2 [Iris Xe Graphics] driver: i915 v: kernel
  Device-2: Microdia Integrated_Webcam_HD driver: uvcvideo type: USB
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.20.14 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.9 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: iris gpu: i915
    resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 Mesa 23.1.2 renderer: Mesa Intel Xe Graphics (TGL GT2)
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Tiger Lake-LP Smart Sound Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
  API: ALSA v: k6.3.8-200.fc38.x86_64 status: kernel-api
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 0.3.71 status: active
Network:
  Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
    driver: ath10k_pci
  IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: 4c:d5:77:5f:e1:3b
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros driver: btusb type: USB
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 state: up address: see --recommends
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 715.41 GiB used: 209.88 GiB (29.3%)
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: SSSTC model: CL1-3D256-Q11 NVMe SSSTC 256GB
    size: 238.47 GiB
  ID-2: /dev/sda model: SATA SSD size: 476.94 GiB
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 97.87 GiB used: 28.22 GiB (28.8%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
  ID-2: /boot/efi size: 618.7 MiB used: 62.7 MiB (10.1%) fs: vfat
    dev: /dev/sda1
  ID-3: /home size: 349.5 GiB used: 181.6 GiB (52.0%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/sda4
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) dev: /dev/zram0
  ID-2: swap-2 type: partition size: 9 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) dev: /dev/sda3
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 64.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
  Processes: 342 Uptime: 5h 46m Memory: available: 15.35 GiB
  used: 6.87 GiB (44.8%) Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.27
2

I suspect it’s a similar situation as zip, meaning there was already a bug in gcal, but it wasn’t exposed until F38 changed the FORTIFY_SOURCE level.

  • If you need to use gcal now, you can try installing the last F37 rpm, or use it in a F37 toolbox.
  • Please file a bug

You can find relevant links to builds/bugs here gcal - Fedora Packages

1 Like
3

Thank you for that pointer. I have not filed a bug so far and will do so, based on the cues you have hyperlinked herein. Much appreciated.