Re: core dump analysis, was Re: stack smashing detected

Michael Schmitz
2023-04-07T01:57:57Z

Hi Finn,

Am 05.04.2023 um 14:00 schrieb Finn Thain:
> On Wed, 5 Apr 2023, Michael Schmitz wrote:
>
>> On 4/04/23 12:13, Finn Thain wrote:
>>> It looks like I messed up. waitproc() appears to have been invoked
>>> twice, which is why wait3 was invoked twice...
>>>
>>> GNU gdb (Debian 13.1-2) 13.1
>>> ...
>>> (gdb) set osabi GNU/Linux
>>> (gdb) file /bin/dash
>>> Reading symbols from /bin/dash...
>>> Reading symbols from
>>> /usr/lib/debug/.build-id/aa/4160f84f3eeee809c554cb9f3e1ef0686b8dcc.debug...
>>> (gdb) b waitproc
>>> Breakpoint 1 at 0xc346: file jobs.c, line 1168.
>>> (gdb) b jobs.c:1180
>>> Breakpoint 2 at 0xc390: file jobs.c, line 1180.
>>> (gdb) run
>>> Starting program: /usr/bin/dash
>>> [Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
>>> Using host libthread_db library "/lib/m68k-linux-gnu/libthread_db.so.1".
>>> # x=$(:)
>>> [Detaching after fork from child process 570]
>>>
>>> Breakpoint 1, waitproc (status=0xeffff86a, block=1) at jobs.c:1168
>>> 1168 jobs.c: No such file or directory.
>>> (gdb) c
>>> Continuing.
>>>
>>> Breakpoint 2, waitproc (status=0xeffff86a, block=1) at jobs.c:1180
>>> 1180 in jobs.c
>>> (gdb) info locals
>>> oldmask = {__val = {1997799424, 49154, 396623872, 184321, 3223896090, 53249,
>>> 3836788738, 1049411610, 867225601, 3094609920, 0, 1048580, 2857693183,
>>> 4184129547, 3435708442, 863764480, 184321, 3844141055, 4190425089,
>>> 4127248385, 3094659084, 597610497, 4135112705, 3844079616, 131072,
>>> 37355520, 184320, 3878473729, 3844132865, 3094663168, 3549089793,
>>> 3844132865}}
>>> flags = 2
>>> err = 570
>>> oldmask = <optimized out>
>>> flags = <optimized out>
>>> err = <optimized out>
>>> (gdb) c
>>> Continuing.
>>>
>>> Breakpoint 1, waitproc (status=0xeffff86a, block=0) at jobs.c:1168
>>> 1168 in jobs.c
>>> (gdb) c
>>> Continuing.
>>>
>>> Breakpoint 2, waitproc (status=0xeffff86a, block=0) at jobs.c:1180
>>> 1180 in jobs.c
>>> (gdb) info locals
>>> oldmask = {__val = {1997799424, 49154, 396623872, 184321, 3223896090, 53249,
>>> 3836788738, 1049411610, 867225601, 3094609920, 0, 1048580, 2857693183,
>>> 4184129547, 3435708442, 863764480, 184321, 3844141055, 4190425089,
>>> 4127248385, 3094659084, 597610497, 4135112705, 3844079616, 131072,
>>> 37355520, 184320, 3878473729, 3844132865, 3094663168, 3549089793,
>>> 3844132865}}
>>> flags = 3
>>> err = -1
>>> oldmask = <optimized out>
>>> flags = <optimized out>
>>> err = <optimized out>
>>> (gdb) c
>>> Continuing.
>>> #
>>>
>> That means we may well see both signals delivered at the same time if the
>> parent shell wasn't scheduled to run until the second subshell terminated
>> (answering the question I was about to ask on your other mail, the one about
>> the crashy script with multiple subshells).
>>
>
> How is that possible? If the parent does not get scheduled, the second
> fork will not take place.

I assumed subshells could run asynchronously, and the parent shell
continue until it hits a statement that needs the result of one of the
subshells.

What is the point of subshells, if not to allow this?

>
>> Now does waitproc() handle that case correctly? The first signal
>> delivered results in err == child PID so the break is taken, causing
>> exit from waitproc().
>
> I don't follow. Can you rephrase that perhaps?

The first subshell exiting causes the wait3() to return, and the return
code is > 0 (child PID). The break statement executes and waitproc()
returns that PID.

I was wondering how multiple child processes exiting would be handled,
but I now see that repeatedly calling waitproc() until all outstanding
jobs have completed is the only way. dash implements this method, so it
must expect multiple jobs / subshells to run concurrently.

> For a single subshell, the SIGCHLD signal can be delivered before wait4 is
> called or after it returns. For example, $(sleep 5) seems to produce the
> latter whereas $(:) tends to produce the former.

I don't think wait4 can return with success before SIGCHLD has been
delivered. Delivery of SIGCHLD is what makes the wait syscalls unblock
as far as I understand.

>> Does waitproc() get called repeatedly until an error is returned?
>>
>
> It's complicated...

Yep, but I'm now satisfied that is the only way ... sorry for the noise.

> https://sources.debian.org/src/dash/0.5.12-2/src/jobs.c/?hl=1122#L1122
>
> I don't care that much what dash does as long as it isn't corrupting it's
> own stack, which is a real possibility, and one which gdb's data watch
> point would normally resolve. And yet I have no way to tackle that.
>
> I've been running gdb under QEMU, where the failure is not reproducible.
> Running dash under gdb on real hardware is doable (RAM permitting). But
> the failure is intermittent even then -- it only happens during execution
> of certain init scripts, and I can't reproduce it by manually running
> those scripts.
>
> (Even if I could reproduce the failure under gdb, instrumenting execution
> in gdb can alter timing in undesirable ways...)
>
> So, again, the best avenue I can think of for such experiments to modify
> the kernel to either keep track of the times of the wait4 syscalls and

The easiest way to do that is to log all wait and signal syscalls, as
well as process exit. That might alter timing if these log messages go
to the serial console though. Is that what you have in mind?

> signal delivery and/or push the timing one way or the other e.g. by
> delaying signal delivery, altering scheduler behaviour, etc. But I don't
> have code for that. I did try adding random delays around kernel_wait4()
> but it didn't have any effect...
>

I wonder whether it's possible to delay process exit (and parent process
signaling) by placing the exit syscall on a timer workqueue. But the
same effect could be had by inserting a sleep before subshell exit ...

And causing a half-dead task to schedule in order to delay signaling
doesn't seem safe to me ...

Cheers,

Michael