Date: Thu, 12 Dec 1996 12:35:43 +0100 (MET) From: Luigi Rizzo <luigi@labinfo.iet.unipi.it> To: hackers@freebsd.org Cc: luigi@labinfo.iet.unipi.it (Luigi Rizzo) Subject: Weird bug in /etc/group -related library functions Message-ID: <199612121135.MAA01522@labinfo.iet.unipi.it>
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Hi, yesterday we have experienced a weird bug related to an invalid /etc/group. I'll submit a PR as soon as I have more detailed info, but the thing was as follows: 1) by mistake an invalid line was inserted in /etc/group. But we did not know... 2) our system (basically running 2.1R) started giving "Memory error" and killing processes on Signal 11 This happened on reboot as well, and on both statically and dynamically linked programs (but we realized this late...) 3) suspecting some hw problem in the system, we started the usual, painful sequence of swapping memory, cache, motherboard, and all possible hardware on the system. Finally, replacing the disk with another one with a fresh install of FreeBSD we found that the hw was working. 4) suspecting some corrupt libraries we replaced them and all the faulting programs, but without result. It took a while to figure out where the problem was: a corrupt line in /etc/group. Any idea on what routine can be at fault ? Among the programs giving Memory fault - signal 11 there were quotacheck, sendmail, and possibly login (it was not possible to log into the system). It sounds like a nasty bug in some library code related to the parsing of /etc/group Luigi -----------------------------+-------------------------------------- Luigi Rizzo | Dip. di Ingegneria dell'Informazione email: luigi@iet.unipi.it | Universita' di Pisa tel: +39-50-568533 | via Diotisalvi 2, 56126 PISA (Italy) fax: +39-50-568522 | http://www.iet.unipi.it/~luigi/ _____________________________|______________________________________
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