tty_list::terminate() tty_master NULL pointer deference

[Conrad W Song]

Running under Windows 2000 Server, using cygwin1.dll versions 1.5.11.1 and
1.5.12.1, I have seen bash based “sh -c gcc” commands fail in AS.exe (gas),
under repeated invocation from a non-cygwin program.  Quick information
about the run:

CYGWIN=tty binmode ntsec nosmbntsec (tty is the important one)
AS.exe exit code = 0x80 (Windows ERROR_WAIT_NO_CHILDREN : a direct result of
AS.exe being spawned from gcc, and failing with a null-pointer deference).

strace logging was unable to reproduce the problem (too slow – 3x for me?),
but using custom logging turned out the following possiblity:

There is a race/bug between ‘tty_list::allocate_tty()’ and
‘tty_list::terminate()’.  The cuprits appear to be:

1) ‘tty_list::terminate’ does not hold the ‘tty_mutex’ before freeing a tty
2) ‘tty::init()’ does not clear ‘master_pid’ field as called by
‘tty_list::terminate()’.

The result is that ‘allocate_tty()’ can enter quickly reusing the same PID
as the process which used to own the master tty (for some reason Windows
decides to recycle PIDs very quickly).  The process thinks that it is
holding the master tty (even though the _prior_ process was terminated --
same PID but different process), and ‘tty_master’ remains NULL.  Upon
‘tty_list::terminate’, ‘tty_master’ is then NULL dereferenced.

I have tried fixing 'tty::init()' to zero out the 'master_pid' field, and it
appears to solve the problem (have not checked it for other bad behavior),
as does the workaround of using ‘CYGWIN=notty’.  However, I do not believe
that the back-to-back PID reuse is timing sensitive, so I am surprised that
strace could not pick up the problem.  I therefore suspect a flaw in my
analysis and am still suspicious about the need for 'tty_mutex' locking in
'tty_list::terminate'.  I will try to provide a reproducing test case soon.

Thanks,

Conrad


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