xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/string/strcat.3 (revision ef33e7368a5be64385219b7c212071e25d2528ad)

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.\"     @(#)strcat.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
.\" $FreeBSD$
.\"
.Dd December 1, 2009
.Dt STRCAT 3
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm strcat ,
.Nm strncat
.Nd concatenate strings
.Sh LIBRARY
.Lb libc
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.In string.h
.Ft char *
.Fn strcat "char * restrict s" "const char * restrict append"
.Ft char *
.Fn strncat "char * restrict s" "const char * restrict append" "size_t count"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Fn strcat
and
.Fn strncat
functions
append a copy of the null-terminated string
.Fa append
to the end of the null-terminated string
.Fa s ,
then add a terminating
.Ql \e0 .
The string
.Fa s
must have sufficient space to hold the result.
.Pp
The
.Fn strncat
function
appends not more than
.Fa count
characters from
.Fa append ,
and then adds a terminating
.Ql \e0 .
.Sh RETURN VALUES
The
.Fn strcat
and
.Fn strncat
functions
return the pointer
.Fa s .
.Sh SECURITY CONSIDERATIONS
The
.Fn strcat
function is easily misused in a manner
which enables malicious users to arbitrarily change
a running program's functionality through a buffer overflow attack.
(See
the FSA.)
.Pp
Avoid using
.Fn strcat .
Instead, use
.Fn strncat
or
.Fn strlcat
and ensure that no more characters are copied to the destination buffer
than it can hold.
.Pp
Note that
.Fn strncat
can also be problematic.
It may be a security concern for a string to be truncated at all.
Since the truncated string will not be as long as the original,
it may refer to a completely different resource
and usage of the truncated resource
could result in very incorrect behavior.
Example:
.Bd -literal
void
foo(const char *arbitrary_string)
{
	char onstack[8];

#if defined(BAD)
	/*
	 * This first strcat is bad behavior.  Do not use strcat!
	 */
	(void)strcat(onstack, arbitrary_string);	/* BAD! */
#elif defined(BETTER)
	/*
	 * The following two lines demonstrate better use of
	 * strncat().
	 */
	(void)strncat(onstack, arbitrary_string,
	    sizeof(onstack) - strlen(onstack) - 1);
#elif defined(BEST)
	/*
	 * These lines are even more robust due to testing for
	 * truncation.
	 */
	if (strlen(arbitrary_string) + 1 >
	    sizeof(onstack) - strlen(onstack))
		err(1, "onstack would be truncated");
	(void)strncat(onstack, arbitrary_string,
	    sizeof(onstack) - strlen(onstack) - 1);
#endif
}
.Ed
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr bcopy 3 ,
.Xr memccpy 3 ,
.Xr memcpy 3 ,
.Xr memmove 3 ,
.Xr strcpy 3 ,
.Xr strlcat 3 ,
.Xr strlcpy 3 ,
.Xr wcscat 3
.Sh STANDARDS
The
.Fn strcat
and
.Fn strncat
functions
conform to
.St -isoC .