https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=65096
Bug ID: 65096 Summary: Illegal memory access beyond packed struct ARCH: ppc64 Product: gcc Version: 5.0 Status: UNCONFIRMED Severity: normal Priority: P3 Component: c Assignee: unassigned at gcc dot gnu.org Reporter: cyrilbur at gmail dot com Created attachment 34795 --> https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/attachment.cgi?id=34795&action=edit Simple test case When a heap allocated packed struct is passed by value and the struct contains an array the copy gets performed with a sequence of ld instructions which can cause the a read beyond the end of the struct. In the case of the attached example: gcc uses ld instructions to copy the char array if it is of size other than 1, 2 or 4. Therefore the assembly is only correct if the size of the array is a multiple of 8 chars. System information: I am reliably informed that it reproduces on 5.0 but I have discovered it on a system with the following versions. builder:~ $ gcc -v Using built-in specs. COLLECT_GCC=gcc COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/usr/libexec/gcc/ppc64-redhat-linux/4.8.3/lto-wrapper Target: ppc64-redhat-linux Configured with: ../configure --prefix=/usr --mandir=/usr/share/man --infodir=/usr/share/info --with-bugurl=http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla --enable-bootstrap --enable-shared --enable-threads=posix --enable-checking=release --with-system-zlib --enable-__cxa_atexit --disable-libunwind-exceptions --enable-gnu-unique-object --enable-linker-build-id --with-linker-hash-style=gnu --enable-languages=c,c++,objc,obj-c++,java,fortran,ada,go,lto --enable-plugin --enable-initfini-array --enable-java-awt=gtk --disable-dssi --with-java-home=/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.5.0-gcj-1.5.0.0/jre --enable-libgcj-multifile --enable-java-maintainer-mode --with-ecj-jar=/usr/share/java/eclipse-ecj.jar --disable-libjava-multilib --with-isl=/builddir/build/BUILD/gcc-4.8.3-20140624/obj-ppc64-redhat-linux/isl-install --with-cloog=/builddir/build/BUILD/gcc-4.8.3-20140624/obj-ppc64-redhat-linux/cloog-install --enable-secureplt --with-long-double-128 --build=ppc64-redhat-linux Thread model: posix gcc version 4.8.3 20140624 (Red Hat 4.8.3-1) (GCC) builder:~ $ valgrind --version valgrind-3.8.1 To confirm: Compile with `gcc gcc_test.c` and run the binary through valgrind `valgrind ./a.out`. Valgrind will report invalid read of size 8. I have a attached a .i and also a simple example .c Work arounds: Pass the struct from the stack. I have documented some of my debugging in the .c.