Gentoo Archives: gentoo-dev

From: Tobias Klausmann <klausman@g.o>
To: gentoo-dev@l.g.o
Subject: [gentoo-dev]
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2009 15:48:19
Message-Id: 20090127154750.GA32544@eric.schwarzvogel.de
1 Hi,
2
3 glibc 2.9 uses a different way to implement getaddrinfo() which
4 triggers a race condition in most (if not all) Netfilter
5 firewalls that use connection tracking. glibc does nothing wrong
6 per se, it just triggers the condition. (technical details here:
7 http://marc.info/?l=linux-netdev&m=123304473331445)
8
9 Since glibc 2.9 fires off two udp packets (a query for the A
10 record and one for the AAAA record), a race condition is
11 triggered in Netfilter (see URL). This has been acknowledged by
12 several people and I can reproduce it (relatively) reliably in
13 our LAN with all Gentoo boxes that have 2.9.
14
15 Why am I bringing this up here? Well, I figure that eventually,
16 2.9 (or some other version with equivalent code) will become
17 stable and we'll get lots of bug reports from people who run into
18 this. Since they can not simply backdate to 2.7 for various
19 reasons *and* they might be unable to fix a packetfilter (because
20 it might not be their own), this might become very ugly.
21
22 The Kernel/Netfilter devs (probably) are aware now of the issue
23 since I mailed them - but it's not all that easy to fix. On top
24 of that, even if it was fixed in (say) 2.6.28.3 and 2.6.29, this
25 does not mean that it's deployed out there and it might be very
26 hard for our users to get some firewall guy to update their
27 kernel when this is perceived as glibc's or our fault (plus the
28 widespread "ricer" cliché about Gentoo users; I've gotten an
29 idiotic reply to that effect already).
30
31 I don't have any experience with glibc upstream but pestering
32 them about this out of the blue might only cause a flame war
33 between kernel and glibc folks. Thus, I'm asking you, my fellow
34 devs (and the glibc and kernel teams specifically), what you
35 think is the best idea/course of action.
36
37 Regards,
38 Tobias
39 (Blackb|rd)
40 --
41 printk("Cool stuff's happening!\n")
42 linux-2.4.3/fs/jffs/intrep.c

Replies

Subject Author
Re: [gentoo-dev] Peter Alfredsen <loki_val@g.o>