Thread (1 message) 1 message, 1 author, 2023-08-08

Re: [PATCH 1/6] maintenance: add get_random_minute()

From: Junio C Hamano <hidden>
Date: 2023-08-08 18:43:05

Taylor Blau [off-list ref] writes:
I think that's an acceptable price to pay here, since we can drop the
code to remember whether or not srand() has been called or not. Here's a
patch that we could take in that direction:
...
  - If a different function also calls `srand()`, the PRNG may start
    generating repeated values (if that caller also initialized the PRNG
    with `getpid()`).
Hmph, I didn't think about that one.  I do not think it can be a
viable attack vector to attack _this_ code, but the other function
might be.  But if the other function is worth attacking and
attackable, it ought to be using crypto-secure one and not srand(),
so this argument may not give us a good justification X-<.

Provided if code simplification is a good enough rationale, the
patch looks sensible, but I find its use of u64 a bit questionable
(though not wrong).  I would have expected that the type of "rand"
would be the same as backoff_ms and wait_ms, two variables involved
in the same expression.

Thanks.
quoted hunk
diff --git a/lockfile.c b/lockfile.c
index 1d5ed01682..6587d407f4 100644
--- a/lockfile.c
+++ b/lockfile.c
@@ -107,22 +107,17 @@ static int lock_file_timeout(struct lock_file *lk, const char *path,
 	int n = 1;
 	int multiplier = 1;
 	long remaining_ms = 0;
-	static int random_initialized = 0;

 	if (timeout_ms == 0)
 		return lock_file(lk, path, flags, mode);

-	if (!random_initialized) {
-		srand((unsigned int)getpid());
-		random_initialized = 1;
-	}
-
 	if (timeout_ms > 0)
 		remaining_ms = timeout_ms;

 	while (1) {
 		long backoff_ms, wait_ms;
 		int fd;
+		uint64_t rand;

 		fd = lock_file(lk, path, flags, mode);
@@ -135,7 +130,10 @@ static int lock_file_timeout(struct lock_file *lk, const char *path,

 		backoff_ms = multiplier * INITIAL_BACKOFF_MS;
 		/* back off for between 0.75*backoff_ms and 1.25*backoff_ms */
-		wait_ms = (750 + rand() % 500) * backoff_ms / 1000;
+		if (csprng_bytes(&rand, sizeof(uint64_t)) < 0)
+			return error_errno(_("unable to get random bytes for"
+					     "lockfile backoff"));
+		wait_ms = (750 + rand % 500) * backoff_ms / 1000;
 		sleep_millisec(wait_ms);
 		remaining_ms -= wait_ms;

--
2.42.0.rc0.26.g802d811bac.dirty
--- >8 ---
Thanks,
Taylor
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