bash integer overflow (?) with large HISTFILESIZE

[Patrick Donnelly]

Configuration Information [Automatically generated, do not change]:
Machine: x86_64
OS: linux-gnu
Compiler: gcc
Compilation CFLAGS:  -DPROGRAM='bash' -DCONF_HOSTTYPE='x86_64'
-DCONF_OSTYPE='linux-gnu' -DCONF_MACHTYPE='x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu'
-DCONF_VENDOR='unknown' -DLOCALEDIR='/usr/share/locale'
-DPACKAGE='bash' -DSHELL -DHAVE_CONFIG_H   -I.  -I. -I./include
-I./lib  -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 -march=x86-64 -mtune=generic -O2 -pipe
-fstack-protector-strong
-DDEFAULT_PATH_VALUE='/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin'
-DSTANDARD_UTILS_PATH='/usr/bin' -DSYS_BASHRC='/etc/bash.bashrc'
-DSYS_BASH_LOGOUT='/etc/bash.bash_logout' -Wno-parentheses
-Wno-format-security
uname output: Linux icewind 4.8.7-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Nov 10
17:22:48 CET 2016 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Machine Type: x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu

Bash Version: 4.4
Patch Level: 0
Release Status: release

Description:

With the latest version of bash just deployed in the Arch Linux
repositories, bash fails with HISTSIZE=2147483647:

bash: xmalloc: cannot allocate 18446744056529682440 bytes


Repeat-By:

$ env HISTSIZE=2147483647 /bin/bash --norc
bash: xmalloc: cannot allocate 18446744056529682440 bytes

Fix:
    [Description of how to fix the problem.  If you don't know a
    fix for the problem, don't include this section.]

-- 
Patrick Donnelly