port-linux.c bug with oom_adjust_restore() - causes real bad oom_adj - which can cause DoS conditions.

[Darren Tucker]

On Tue, May 31, 2011 at 9:11 PM, Cal Leeming [Simplicity Media Ltd]
<cal.leeming at simplicitymedialtd.co.uk> wrote:
[...]
> Could you point out the line of code where oom_adj_save is set to the
> original value, because I've looked everywhere, and from what I can
> tell, it's only ever set to INT_MIN,

It's read from /proc/self/oom_adj at startup time in oom_adjust_setup():

               if ((fp = fopen(oom_adj_path, "r+")) != NULL) {
                        if (fscanf(fp, "%d", &oom_adj_save) != 1)

This is the reason for the "Set /proc/self/oom_adj from -17 to -17"
probably why Gert commented on it.

Basically, sshd sets the listening process to -17, then restores
whatever was previously set for all forked processes.  If oom_adj was
previously -17, sshd will restore that.

[...]
> This was what I was trying to pinpoint down before. I had came to this
> conclusion myself, sent it to the Debian bug list, and they dismissed
> on the grounds that it was an openssh problem...

I'd suggest "grep -rl oom_adj /etc" and see if one of your system
startup scripts sets it.  Failing that, I'd try cold booting your
machine without your problem module, modprobe it and check
/proc/self/oom_adj and see if the modprobe or module loading somehow
changes that (I can't imagine that it would, but you seem to have a
really strange case here...).

-- 
Darren Tucker (dtucker at zip.com.au)
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    Good judgement comes with experience. Unfortunately, the experience
usually comes from bad judgement.