Re: forkbombing Linux distributions

[Natanael Copa <mlists@tanael.org>]

On Thu, 2005-03-31 at 01:46 +0200, Felipe Alfaro Solana wrote:
> On Mon, 28 Mar 2005 19:28:20 +0200, Matthieu Castet
> <mat@ensilinx1.imag.fr> wrote:
> > > The memory limits aren't good enough either: if you set them low
> > > enough that memory-forkbombs are unperilous for
> > > RLIMIT_NPROC*RLIMIT_DATA, it's probably too low for serious
> > > applications.
> > 
> > yes, if you want to run application like openoffice.org you need at
> > least 200Mo. If you want that your system is usable, you need at least 40 process per user. So 40*200 = 8Go, and it don't think you have all this memory...
> > 
> > I think per user limit could be a solution.
> > 
> > attached a small fork-memory bombing.
> 
> Doesn't do anything on my machine:
> 
> # ulimits -a
...

> it tops at 100 processes and eats a little CPU... although the system
> is under load, it's completely responsive.

100 processes is low. I often have over 150.

I use the patch mentioned here:
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel&m=111209980932023&w=2
(it set the default max_threads and RLIMIT_NPROC to half of the current
default)

and my system survived.

ncopa@nc ~ $ ulimit -u
4093

(I have 1 GiB RAM)

--
Natanael Copa