ctypes.Structure: bitfield of underaligned type can cause read of unrelated memory

Bug report

Bug description:

(This is an exotic edge case found by tests that are perhaps too stringent, but, we prefer issues over XXX comments in the code, so, here goes.)

A bitfield of an “underaligned” type (one whose alignment is smaller than its size) can cause the “storage unit” that ctypes uses for handling the bitfield to extend past the containing Structure.

For example, on 32-bit x86 architecture, where int64_t is 8 bytes long but only aligned to 4 bytes, we have:

>>> import ctypes
>>> class S(ctypes.Structure):
...     _fields_ = [('f', ctypes.c_int64, 1)]
>>> ctypes.sizeof(S)
4
>>> ctypes.sizeof(ctypes.c_int64)
8

This matches GCC struct layout:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdint.h>

struct S {
    int64_t f: 1;
};

int main() {
    printf("%zd\n", sizeof(struct S));  // -> 4
}

ctypes handles bitfield reads/writes by reading the entire storage unit, masking/shifting, and (for writes) writing the entire unit back. So, in this case it can read/write memory that doesn't belong to the struct.

CPython versions tested on:

CPython main branch

Operating systems tested on:

Linux

Reproduire l’exemple de champ de bits de ctypes.Structure sur x86 32 bits et examiner la gestion des unités de stockage des champs de bits décrite dans le rapport. Le travail est considéré comme terminé si la taille de structure compatible avec GCC est préservée sans lire ni écrire de mémoire au-delà de la structure conteneur.