[openssl-dev] [openssl.org #4614] pthread_once and malloc failures

[Matt Caswell via RT]

On 19/07/16 16:23, Richard Levitte via RT wrote:
> On Mon Jul 11 16:20:29 2016, kurt at roeckx.be wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> When trying to check what happens if we simulate malloc()
>> returning NULL I'm running into a problem that I'm not sure how to
>> deal with.
>>
>> We have CRYPTO_THREAD_run_once(), which takes an init() function
>> that returns void, so it can't return failures. At least the
>> pthread_once() function also has it as void.
>>
>> But if those functions call malloc() and that returns NULL, we now
>> don't catch that error, and later just try to use a NULL pointer.
>>
>> Anybody a good idea how to solve this?
> 
> Rethinking this...
> 
> Most of all, we use CRYPTO_THREAD_run_once() internally to initiate the first
> locks, so pretty much in an initial state of the library (not entirely true,
> since we do these inits opportunistically, but it's probable that they happen
> very early on). If they are having memory allocation, the running app is
> probably in deep shit anyway, so a hard assert in our diverse inits would
> probably be appropriate either way.

You are assuming that the application loads and inits OpenSSL early and
that it is critical to its function. It may not be.

Matt


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Ticket here: http://rt.openssl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=4614
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