Re: shouldn't a non-privileged malformed sprintf crashes the kernel

[Gene Heskett]

On Sunday 17 February 2013, Toralf FÃrster wrote:
>This is the 2nd time in a row that a stable kernel (3.7.8 currently)
>crashes in such a way that even the sys-rq key doesn't work any longer.
>Found nothing in the log. The screen shot is here [1]. First time this
>issue was reported in [2].
>
>The bug seems to be triggered by the BOINC client - I'm running the alpha
>version of it [3].
>
>I'm wondering whether the sprintf issue discussed in [4] is the trigger
>for the bug (I attached that message here b/c the BOINC devs doesn't
>allow just even read access to the mail archive w/o registering).
>
>
>@boinc_devs
>IMO it would be helpful to store the pid of the BOINC clients to
>stdoutdae.txt too, or where can I find it ?
>
>
>
>[1] http://ompldr.org/vaGh0MQ
>[2] http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.kernel/1438965
>[3] https://boinc.berkeley.edu/dev/forum_thread.php?id=6698#46649
>[4]
>http://lists.ssl.berkeley.edu/mailman/private/boinc_dev/2013-February/01
>9545.html

You are asking for help from the BOINC folks, on a linux list?  Rotsa ruck.
I was in the top 5000 when it was SETI@home, but they let some windows 
folks in & the next thing I knew SETI was shut down unless you ran it via 
the BOINC manager.  But the BOINC thing never learned about nice, and just 
took over the machine so badly I couldn't even type an email.  I worked for 
several days on a wrapper that did use nice, but their next packet 
transition always managed to defeat it.  When I complained, I was told to 
use windows!  Since it was my machine, not theirs, I nuked it off the 
system.

IMO, if they want to use my spare cpu cycles, then they can make an effort 
to get along with linux.  Telling me, when I complained, to use windows, 
was the last straw.

Cheers, Gene
-- 
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