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Low 35 Bitcoin

bootloader: avoid snprintf formatting

Public commit record

What the developer wrote

Authored by Marko Bencun

63/100 · Adequate
bootloader: avoid snprintf formatting

Replace the extracted bootloader formatting helpers with fixed-size string building.

Add a small Rust decimal formatter for the fixed integer cases.

Remove the remaining production bootloader snprintf pulls from debug copies and UGUI line slicing.

Also replace the Plus BLE random-name formatting.

Extend the unwanted-symbols CI check to cover production bootloader ELFs.

Reject stdio and Rust formatting symbols there.
✓ Descriptive subject✓ Provides detailed explanatory context✓ Names security-relevant behavior explicitly
The short version

What changed, and why it matters

This commit removes the use of standard string-formatting functions (like snprintf and Rust's format!) from the bootloader and related low-level code, replacing them with smaller, fixed-size string builders. The stated goal is to reduce binary size ('bloat') in the production bootloader, not to fix a known security bug. The change also adds a CI check that rejects any future use of these formatting symbols in production bootloader builds. While removing complex formatting libraries from a bootloader is generally good defensive practice, the commit itself does not describe or demonstrate any exploitable vulnerability.

Recommended action

Treat as a hardening and code-quality improvement rather than an urgent security fix. Review the new fixed-size formatters for off-by-one and null-termination correctness, ensure the CI symbol patterns cover all relevant formatting entry points, and continue to monitor for any future reintroduction of stdio/Rust formatting into bootloader builds.

Security signals we found

01

Removal of stdio formatting (snprintf family) from bootloader code

02

Removal of Rust format!/write! formatting from bootloader-linked code

03

Addition of CI gate rejecting stdio and Rust formatting symbols in production bootloader ELFs

04

Replacement with fixed-size, bounded string/integer formatting helpers

05

New util_strlcpy helper for safe string copy with explicit bounds

06

No vendor claim of vulnerability or CVE in commit message

Risk score

Why this scored 35/100

Our methodology →
Potential impact 8/30
Exploitability 5/25
Stealth signal 6/15
Affected reach 7/15
Confidence 6/10
Evidence quality 3/5
Human-validated context

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