Guile-provided GMP allocators interfere with GnuTLS

OpenSubmitted by Ludovic Courtès.
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  • Ludovic Courtès
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Ludovic Courtès wrote on 5 Feb 17:59 +0100
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Fellow Debian hackers identified a bug causing memory corruption inNettle data structures used by GnuTLS when GnuTLS is used from Guile:
https://bugs.debian.org/964284
In a nutshell, Guile installs its own GMP memory allocation routines(when ‘scm_install_gmp_memory_functions’ is true, which is the default)so that GMP allocates via libgc. GnuTLS uses Nettle, which uses GMP, soNettle too ends up allocating via libgc; however, since pointers to thatmemory are not scanned by libgc, they end up being reclaimed early.
In practice, memory corruption is relatively rare, to the point that wedid not notice it in Guix. In Debian, it would lead to a failure of the‘tests/reauth.scm’ test in GnuTLS. With minor modifications to thetest, as noted in the thread above, I can reproduce it on Guix as well.
The thread above mentions possible workaround, but there’s nothingsatisfactory.
The longer-term solution is to use mini-GMP in Guile (which is also niceas a way to reduce dependencies).
To be continued…
Ludo’.
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Ludovic Courtès wrote on 5 Feb 18:01 +0100
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severity 46330 seriousquit
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Ludovic Courtès wrote on 5 Feb 18:13 +0100
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Re: bug#46330: Guile-provided GMP allocators interfere with GnuTLS
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Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> skribis:
Toggle quote (6 lines)> In a nutshell, Guile installs its own GMP memory allocation routines> (when ‘scm_install_gmp_memory_functions’ is true, which is the default)> so that GMP allocates via libgc. GnuTLS uses Nettle, which uses GMP, so> Nettle too ends up allocating via libgc; however, since pointers to that> memory are not scanned by libgc, they end up being reclaimed early.
One of the solutions is to set:
scm_install_gmp_memory_functions = 0;
in Guile, as Andy suggested on IRC, but it incurs a performance hit onbignum-heavy applications such as the compiler:
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=964284#78
However, since Guix now uses its own ‘guile’ binary, we can work aroundthe issue like so:
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Toggle diff (23 lines)diff --git a/gnu/packages/aux-files/guile-launcher.c b/gnu/packages/aux-files/guile-launcher.cindex 1dd5d77e66..814084e032 100644--- a/gnu/packages/aux-files/guile-launcher.c+++ b/gnu/packages/aux-files/guile-launcher.c@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@ /* GNU Guix --- Functional package management for GNU- Copyright 1996-1997,2000-2001,2006,2008,2011,2013,2018,2020+ Copyright 1996-1997,2000-2001,2006,2008,2011,2013,2018,2020,2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Copyright (C) 2020 Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> @@ -82,7 +82,10 @@ main (int argc, char **argv) unsetenv ("GUILE_LOAD_PATH"); unsetenv ("GUILE_LOAD_COMPILED_PATH"); - scm_install_gmp_memory_functions = 1;+ /* XXX: Do not let GMP allocate via libgc as this can lead to memory+ corruption in GnuTLS/Nettle: <https://issues.guix.gnu.org/46330>. */+ scm_install_gmp_memory_functions = 0;+ scm_boot_guile (argc, argv, inner_main, 0); return 0; /* never reached */ }
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The advantage of this hack is that we still get to use upstream ‘guile’for compilation purposes (with no performance hit), and we use our own“safe” ‘guile’ executable for stuff that may use GnuTLS, in particular‘guix substitute’ and ‘guix perform-download’.
There may still be a few cases where we’d use stock ‘guile’ togetherwith GnuTLS. The only example that comes to mind is when calling‘download-nar’ or ‘swh-download’ as a fallback in (guix git-download).That’s quite rare though.
So I think that the above is a workaround we could deploy right away.It should allow us to wait until we have Guile on mini-GMP.
Thoughts?
Ludo’.
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Ludovic Courtès wrote on 7 Feb 22:24 +0100
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Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> skribis:
Toggle quote (6 lines)> In a nutshell, Guile installs its own GMP memory allocation routines> (when ‘scm_install_gmp_memory_functions’ is true, which is the default)> so that GMP allocates via libgc. GnuTLS uses Nettle, which uses GMP, so> Nettle too ends up allocating via libgc; however, since pointers to that> memory are not scanned by libgc, they end up being reclaimed early.
For the record, one option I considered is to link GnuTLS againstNettle-with-mini-GMP, whereby Nettle uses a bundled mini-GMP instead ofmini-GMP.
Another option is to build GnuTLS --with-nettle-mini, where GnuTLS linksagainst a bundled mini-Nettle, instead linked against a bundled mini-GMP (!).
Currently both options lead to build failures in GnuTLS:
https://lists.gnutls.org/pipermail/gnutls-help/2021-February/004680.html
(Package definitions attached for posterity.)
Ludo’.
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Toggle diff (75 lines)diff --git a/gnu/packages/nettle.scm b/gnu/packages/nettle.scmindex f5e7188ff0..875a858946 100644--- a/gnu/packages/nettle.scm+++ b/gnu/packages/nettle.scm@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@ ;;; GNU Guix --- Functional package management for GNU-;;; Copyright © 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org>+;;; Copyright © 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2021 Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> ;;; Copyright © 2016 Mark H Weaver <mhw@netris.org> ;;; Copyright © 2017 Efraim Flashner <efraim@flashner.co.il> ;;;@@ -89,3 +89,12 @@ themselves.") ;; Build "fat" binaries where the right implementation is chosen ;; at run time based on CPU features (starting from 3.1.) `(cons "--enable-fat" ,flags))))))++(define-public nettle/mini-gmp+ (package/inherit nettle+ (name "nettle-mini-gmp")+ (arguments+ (substitute-keyword-arguments (package-arguments nettle)+ ((#:configure-flags flags)+ `(cons "--enable-mini-gmp" ,flags))))+ (propagated-inputs '())))diff --git a/gnu/packages/tls.scm b/gnu/packages/tls.scmindex 775e915534..fe2ec88a9e 100644--- a/gnu/packages/tls.scm+++ b/gnu/packages/tls.scm@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@ ;;; GNU Guix --- Functional package management for GNU-;;; Copyright © 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020 Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org>+;;; Copyright © 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2021 Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> ;;; Copyright © 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 Mark H Weaver <mhw@netris.org> ;;; Copyright © 2014 Ian Denhardt <ian@zenhack.net> ;;; Copyright © 2013, 2015 Andreas Enge <andreas@enge.fr>@@ -165,6 +165,7 @@ living in the same process.") (package (name "gnutls") (version "3.6.15")+ (replacement gnutls/mini-nettle) (source (origin (method url-fetch) ;; Note: Releases are no longer on ftp.gnu.org since the@@ -256,6 +257,31 @@ required structures.") (properties '((ftp-server . "ftp.gnutls.org") (ftp-directory . "/gcrypt/gnutls"))))) +;; (define-public gnutls/nettle-mini-gmp+;; (package/inherit gnutls+;; (arguments+;; (substitute-keyword-arguments (package-arguments gnutls)+;; ((#:phases phases '%standard-phases)+;; `(modify-phases ,phases+;; (add-before 'configure 'dont-link-against-libgmp+;; (lambda _+;; (substitute* "configure"+;; (("GMP_LIBS=\"-lgmp\"")+;; "GMP_LIBS=\"\""))))))))+;; (propagated-inputs+;; `(("nettle" ,nettle/mini-gmp)+;; ,@(alist-delete "nettle" (package-propagated-inputs gnutls))))))++(define-public gnutls/mini-nettle+ (package/inherit gnutls+ (arguments+ (substitute-keyword-arguments (package-arguments gnutls)+ ((#:configure-flags flags ''())+ `(cons "--with-nettle-mini" ,flags))))+ ;; (propagated-inputs+ ;; (alist-delete "nettle" (package-propagated-inputs gnutls)))+ ))+ (define-public gnutls/guile-2.0 ;; GnuTLS for Guile 2.0. (package/inherit gnutls
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Ludovic Courtès wrote on 7 Feb 23:47 +0100
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Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> skribis:
Toggle quote (4 lines)> One of the solutions is to set:>> scm_install_gmp_memory_functions = 0;
Done in a53f711422f63d7e32b8639b968cf00bcc69ffea, followed by an updateof the ‘guix’ package in 63d4b74420563c4e2dbdfa29b3816d1dad9cd723.
This mostly solves the problem on the Guix side, but the issue remainsin GnuTLS. I practical terms, we could experience random test failuresin the guile-gnutls test suite, like the Debian folks did.
At the very least we’ll need to work around that possibility in‘core-updates’. We could skip them, or add ‘gc-disable’ calls there.Or we could build GnuTLS against Nettle-with-mini-GMP when that becomesan option.
The other option coming up is to build Guile against mini-GMP. MikeGran just started looked into it and it may be that 3.0.6 will offer it.
I’m keeping the bug open until this is sorted out.
Ludo’.
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