Hi Max, it appears to me that mod_ldap is trying to manage a global (cross process  + cross thread) lock outside of rmm, which is why it tells RMM to not use a lock.

Windows is a special case where there is only 1 process and N threads.  But passing in a thread mutex only is probably wrong outside of windows.

Not having looked too closely, it seems likely that an LDAP_CACHE_LOCK() is missing somewhere where we call into rmm.

Have you been able to verify on a later release?

I have not tried a later release in production, no, only because we have been soaking the change to see if it improved reliability.

I am looking at the mod_ldap changes between our current version (2.4.16) and the latest (2.4.23) and see that the only changes are whitespace, either adding/remove spaces or adding newlines before braces, so I would expect that 2.4.23 is similarly affected.

The LDAP_CACHE_LOCK construct is defined only to the util_ldap.c translation unit, it does not seem to be available, at present, to util_ldap_cache_mgr.c where the RMM blocks are allocated and freed.

(In reply to Max Burke from comment #2)
> I have not tried a later release in production, no, only because we have
> been soaking the change to see if it improved reliability.
> 
> I am looking at the mod_ldap changes between our current version (2.4.16)
> and the latest (2.4.23) and see that the only changes are whitespace, either
> adding/remove spaces or adding newlines before braces, so I would expect
> that 2.4.23 is similarly affected.
> 
> The LDAP_CACHE_LOCK construct is defined only to the util_ldap.c translation
> unit, it does not seem to be available, at present, to util_ldap_cache_mgr.c
> where the RMM blocks are allocated and freed.

It's not directly available, but that lock is meant to be held by anyone who would ultimately get into the code that does the allocations. That is usually (AFAICT) via util_ald_cache_insert().

What kind of Require ldap-* do you use? I noticed the debian OP didn't list that bit.

(In reply to Eric Covener from comment #3)
> What kind of Require ldap-* do you use? I noticed the debian OP didn't list
> that bit.

I'm unfamiliar with what you mean by "Require ldap-*", but here are the snippets from our httpd.conf for the ldap settings:

LoadModule authnz_ldap_module modules/mod_authnz_ldap.so
LoadModule ldap_module modules/mod_ldap.so

LDAPTrustedMode SSL
LDAPVerifyServerCert off
LDAPSharedCacheSize 20000000

<AuthnProviderAlias ldap eac>
	AuthLDAPURL "[... snip ... ]"
	AuthLDAPBindDN  "[ ... snip ... ]"
	
	# including ldap password from a separate file
	# AuthLDAPBindPassword secret
	Include conf/ldap_bind_pwd.conf
</AuthnProviderAlias>

Fixed status - sorry wrong bug.

*** Bug 58483 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Max or Eric,

Are there any changes in status of this bug ? 

I can corroborate to what Max said, and proposed, since I'm analysing a dump that was brought to me, exactly in this situation (and also could find another old bug with the same race condition):

https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=58483

These are my notes so far:

Problem summary:

apr_rmm_init acts as a relocatable memory management initialization

it is used in: mod_auth_digest and util_ldap_cache

From the dump was brought to my knowledge, in the following sequence:

- util_ldap_compare_node_copy()
- util_ald_strdup()
- apr_rmm_calloc()
- find_block_of_size()

Had a "cache->rmm_addr" with no lock at "find_block_of_size()"

cache->rmm_addr->lock { type = apr_anylock_none } 

And an invalid "next" offset (out of rmm->base->firstfree).

This rmm_addr was initialized with NULL as a locking mechanism:

From apr-utils:

apr_rmm_init()

    if (!lock) {    <-- 2nd argument to apr_rmm_init()
        nulllock.type = apr_anylock_none;    <--- found in the dump
        nulllock.lock.pm = NULL;
        lock = &nulllock;
    }

From apache:

# mod_auth_digest

    sts = apr_rmm_init(&client_rmm,
                       NULL, /* no lock, we'll do the locking ourselves */
                       apr_shm_baseaddr_get(client_shm),
                       shmem_size, ctx);

# util_ldap_cache

        result = apr_rmm_init(&st->cache_rmm, NULL,
                              apr_shm_baseaddr_get(st->cache_shm), size,
                              st->pool);

It appears that the ldap module chose to use "rmm" for memory allocation, using
the shared memory approach, but without explicitly definiting a lock to it. 
Without it, its up to the caller to guarantee that there are locks for rmm 
synchronization (just like mod_auth_digest does, using global mutexes).

Because of that, there was a race condition in "find_block_of_size" and a call
touching "rmm->base->firstfree", possibly "move_block()", in a multi-threaded 
apache environment, since there were no lock guarantees inside rmm logic (lock
was "apr_anylock_none" and the locking calls don't do anything). 

In find_block_of_size:

    apr_rmm_off_t next = rmm->base->firstfree;

We have:

    rmm->base->firstfree
	Decimal:356400
	Hex:0x57030

But "next" turned into:

Name : next
	Decimal:8320808657351632189
	Hex:0x737973636970653d

Causing:

        struct rmm_block_t *blk = (rmm_block_t*)((char*)rmm->base + next);

        if (blk->size == size)

To segfault.

I recently re-fixed an issue that causes the lock in mod_ldap to not be used.  It will be in 2.4.31. It is a one-line change.

http://svn.apache.org/viewvc?view=revision&revision=1824811

Just for a reference on someone that finds this bug. 

Distributions Fixes (Debian & Ubuntu):

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=814980#15
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apache2/+bug/1752683

With LP: #1752683 being worked on (about to suggest final fix for all Ubuntu versions), it is likely I'll suggest same fix for Bug: #814980, both based in upstream commit: 39ae6cd64268 brought to me by Eric.

Eric,

Even after your fix...

LDAP_CACHE_LOCK() is either missing a barrier or it is not enough for subsequent calls to APR with NULL locking (passed to APR_RMM_INIT). After patch for this bug has been applied, https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apache2/+bug/1752683 and the new bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apache2/+bug/1767105, end user still complains about seg faults and core dumps show same issue: race condition for rmm->base->firstfree in function "find_block_of_size".

In the dump, in find_block_of_size():

    apr_rmm_off_t next = rmm->base->firstfree;
    ...
    while(next) {
        struct rmm_block_t *blk = (rmm_block_t*)((char*)rmm->base + next);

blk gets value 0x5772e56b36226557 because "next" was corrupted (value: 0x57726573553d554f). This happens because the lock 

    APR_ANYLOCK_LOCK(&rmm->lock);

in apr_rmm_calloc() is apr_anylock_none, like previously reported by me.

For the sake of exercising possibilities, if mod_ldap is calling APR RMM with external locking, it would be using LDAP_CACHE_LOCK. My current stack trace is this:

Thread #19 7092 (Suspended : Container)	
	kill() at syscall-template.S:84 0x7ff7e9911767	
	<signal handler called>() at 0x7ff7e9cb7390	
	find_block_of_size() at apr_rmm.c:106 0x7ff7ea10e25a	
	apr_rmm_calloc() at apr_rmm.c:342 0x7ff7ea10ea68	
	util_ald_alloc() at util_ldap_cache_mgr.c:105 0x7ff7e3369b3d	
	util_ldap_compare_node_copy() at util_ldap_cache.c:257 0x7ff7e3369784	
	util_ald_cache_insert() at util_ldap_cache_mgr.c:501 0x7ff7e336a310	
	uldap_cache_compare() at util_ldap.c:1,183 0x7ff7e33662d3	
	ldapgroup_check_authorization() at mod_authnz_ldap.c:925 0x7ff7e8459937	
	apply_authz_sections() at mod_authz_core.c:737 0x7ff7e4bb99fa	
	apply_authz_sections() at mod_authz_core.c:751 0x7ff7e4bb9c01	
	authorize_user_core() at mod_authz_core.c:840 0x7ff7e4bb9dca	
	ap_run_auth_checker() at request.c:91 0x56127e692f00	
	ap_process_request_internal() at request.c:335 0x56127e695d57	
	ap_process_async_request() at http_request.c:408 0x56127e6b4690	
	ap_process_request() at http_request.c:445 0x56127e6b4850	
	ap_process_http_sync_connection() at http_core.c:210 0x56127e6b091e	
	ap_process_http_connection() at http_core.c:251 0x56127e6b091e	
	ap_run_process_connection() at connection.c:41 0x56127e6a6bf0	
	ap_process_connection() at connection.c:213 0x56127e6a7000	
	process_socket() at worker.c:631 0x7ff7e2f51f8b	
	worker_thread() at worker.c:990 0x7ff7e2f51f8b	
	start_thread() at pthread_create.c:333 0x7ff7e9cad6ba	
	clone() at clone.S:109 0x7ff7e99e341d	

Which means uldap_cache_compare() would have synchronized access to APR RMM calls through LDAP_CACHE_LOCK() macro. This doesn't seem to be the case as the lock doesn't seem to be acquired.

LDAP_CACHE_LOCK() translates into:

do {
    if (st->util_ldap_cache_lock)
        apr_global_mutex_lock(st->util_ldap_cache_lock);
} while (0);

After the change proposed for this bug (where "util_ldap_cache_lock" would come from the ldap_merge_config), it seems that st has util_ldap_cache_lock and util_ldap_cache all set:

Name : util_ldap_cache_lock
	Hex:0x7ff7ea75aee0

Name : util_ldap_cache
	Hex:0x7ff7e0e51038

Meaning that it got the ldap_cache and ldap_cache_lock from the merge config function.

From the mutex acquire logic, for the apr_global_mutex_lock() -> apr_proc_mutex_lock():

apr_status_t apr_proc_mutex_lock(apr_proc_mutex_t *mutex)
{
    return mutex->meth->acquire(mutex);
}

And, from my dump, it would translate into:

st->util_ldap_cache_lock->proc_mutex->meth->acquire == proc_mutex_fcntl_acquire()

And from that logic:

static apr_status_t proc_mutex_fcntl_acquire(apr_proc_mutex_t *mutex)
{
    int rc;

    do {
        rc = fcntl(mutex->interproc->filedes, F_SETLKW, &proc_mutex_lock_it);
    } while (rc < 0 && errno == EINTR);
    if (rc < 0) {
        return errno;
    }
    mutex->curr_locked=1;
    return APR_SUCCESS;
}

Again, from the dump, We would guarantee mutex lock through a file descriptor to the file:

"/var/lock/apache2/ldap-cache.1368" (filedes == 15)

And the "mutex->curr_locked" would be 1.

Unfortunately, considering my stack trace, during the cache insertion:

find_block_of_size() at apr_rmm.c:106 0x7ff7ea10e25a	
apr_rmm_calloc() at apr_rmm.c:342 0x7ff7ea10ea68	
util_ald_alloc() at util_ldap_cache_mgr.c:105 0x7ff7e3369b3d	
util_ldap_compare_node_copy() at util_ldap_cache.c:257 0x7ff7e3369784	
util_ald_cache_insert() at util_ldap_cache_mgr.c:501 0x7ff7e336a310	
uldap_cache_compare() at util_ldap.c:1,183 0x7ff7e33662d3	

Name : st->util_ldap_cache_lock
	Details:0x7ff7ea75aee0
	Default:0x7ff7ea75aee0
	Decimal:140702767230688
	Hex:0x7ff7ea75aee0
	Binary:11111111111011111101010011101011010111011100000
	Octal:03777375235327340

Name : proc_mutex
	Details:0x7ff7ea75aef8
	Default:0x7ff7ea75aef8
	Decimal:140702767230712
	Hex:0x7ff7ea75aef8
	Binary:11111111111011111101010011101011010111011111000
	Octal:03777375235327370

Name : curr_locked
	Details:0
	Default:0
	Decimal:0
	Hex:0x0
	Binary:0
	Octal:0

I have curr_locked = 0

So far.. I can see:

The functions (from fcntl type of locking) touching curr_locked are:

proc_mutex_fcntl_acquire()    -> fcntl(proc_mutex_lock_it), curr_locked = 1
proc_mutex_fcntl_tryacquire() -> unblocking fcntl(proc_mutex_lock_it), curr_locked = 1

proc_mutex_fcntl_create()     -> apr_file_open(), curr_locked = 0
proc_mutex_fcntl_release()    -> curr_locked = 0, fcntl(proc_mutex_unlock_it)

proc_mutex_fcntl_cleanup()    -> if (cur_locked = 1) { mutex_fcntl_release() } -> apr_file_close()

Meaning that likely _release() might have raced with _acquire() somehow. One thing that comes to my thoughts, right away, is the fact that function proc_mutex_fcntl_release(), from apr, sets "curr_locked" to 0 before actually the fcntl() F_SETLKW succeeds BUT the locking is guaranteed using the file lock with fcntl() call and not due to the variable value change, so it would be okay-ish. 

I can't see any other obvious reason why the lock is not acquired in this current execution. Still investigating... any ideas ?

Is fcntl being forced here somehow, or is it the default (apachectl -V|grep APR_USE) ?  I wonder if an affected user could try a different mechanism, via e.g. https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/core.html#mutex with "ldap-cache" as the parm (or if they already are somehow?)

Thread #19 7092 (Suspended : Container)
	kill() at syscall-template.S:84 0x7ff7e9911767
	<signal handler called>() at 0x7ff7e9cb7390
	find_block_of_size() at apr_rmm.c:106 0x7ff7ea10e25a
	apr_rmm_calloc() at apr_rmm.c:342 0x7ff7ea10ea68
	util_ald_alloc() at util_ldap_cache_mgr.c:105 0x7ff7e3369b3d
	util_ldap_compare_node_copy() at util_ldap_cache.c:257 0x7ff7e3369784
	util_ald_cache_insert() at util_ldap_cache_mgr.c:501 0x7ff7e336a310
	uldap_cache_compare() at util_ldap.c:1,183 0x7ff7e33662d3
	ldapgroup_check_authorization() at mod_authnz_ldap.c:925 0x7ff7e8459937
	apply_authz_sections() at mod_authz_core.c:737 0x7ff7e4bb99fa
	apply_authz_sections() at mod_authz_core.c:751 0x7ff7e4bb9c01
	authorize_user_core() at mod_authz_core.c:840 0x7ff7e4bb9dca
	ap_run_auth_checker() at request.c:91 0x56127e692f00
	ap_process_request_internal() at request.c:335 0x56127e695d57
	ap_process_async_request() at http_request.c:408 0x56127e6b4690
	ap_process_request() at http_request.c:445 0x56127e6b4850
	ap_process_http_sync_connection() at http_core.c:210 0x56127e6b091e
	ap_process_http_connection() at http_core.c:251 0x56127e6b091e
	ap_run_process_connection() at connection.c:41 0x56127e6a6bf0
	ap_process_connection() at connection.c:213 0x56127e6a7000
	process_socket() at worker.c:631 0x7ff7e2f51f8b
	worker_thread() at worker.c:990 0x7ff7e2f51f8b
	start_thread() at pthread_create.c:333 0x7ff7e9cad6ba
	clone() at clone.S:109 0x7ff7e99e341d

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

static apr_rmm_off_t find_block_of_size(apr_rmm_t *rmm, apr_size_t size)
{
    apr_rmm_off_t next = rmm->base->firstfree;
    apr_rmm_off_t best = 0;
    apr_rmm_off_t bestsize = 0;

    while (next) {
        struct rmm_block_t *blk = (rmm_block_t*)((char*)rmm->base + next);

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The following code touches "rmm->base->firstfree" (capable of racing):

apr_rmm_destroy()
 - ...

apr_rmm_init()
 - ...

find_block_of_size()
 - apr_rmm_calloc()
 - apr_rmm_malloc()

move_block()
 - apr_rmm_calloc()
 - apr_rmm_free()
 - apr_rmm_malloc()

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All APR calls to RMM have to have: APR_ANYLOCK_LOCK(&rmm->lock) and lock can't
be apr_anylock_none ORELSE the lock has to be guaranteed by the caller, in our
case, uldap_cache_compare() using the LDAP_CACHE_LOCK() directive.

LDAP_CACHE_LOCK() directive is:

	do {
		if (st->util_ldap_cache_lock)
		apr_global_mutex_lock(st->util_ldap_cache_lock);
	} while (0);

Where st is a ldap state struct, got by ap_get_module_config() on the ldap mod.
"util_ldap_cache_lock" is the global apr mutex for this module and it is set by:

    st->util_ldap_cache_lock = base->util_ldap_cache_lock;

in "util_ldap_merge_config" AND (re)-initialized in util_ldap_post_config if,
still after ldap merge, it does NOT contain "cache_shm" and APR_HAS_SHARED_MEMOR
was defined (cache settings are inherited in the virtual host, all server use
the same shared memory cache).

If re-initialized by util_ldap_post_config, util_ldap_cache_lock is a mutex
created with ap_global_mutex_create using a "ldap-cache" type.

#if APR_HAS_SHARED_MEMORY
    if (!st->cache_shm) {
#endif

If APR_HAS_SHARED_MEMORY is not set, it always initializes the lock like this.

	result = ap_global_mutex_create(&st->util_ldap_cache_lock, NULL,
	                 ldap_cache_mutex_type, NULL, s, p, 0);

Since the util_ldap_cache_lock->proc_mutex->fname is this:

	0x7ff7ea75af38 == "/var/lock/apache2/ldap-cache.1368"

We know for sure that the locking being used is "ldap-cache" and was set like
above since the name is originated from "lock type" string.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We can say for sure that the ldap global lock: st->util_ldap_cache_lock was
created by util_ldap_post_config() function, and the locking method was obtained
from the "mxcfg_lookup()" logic when doing the ap_global_mutex_create() with the
type "ldap_cache_mutex_type" ("ldap-cache" string).

ldap_cache_mutex_type variable ("ldap-cache") is a global, configured or used by
functions coming from the util_ldap_register_hooks:

util_ldap_child_init()			- n/a
util_ldap_post_config()			- creates util_ldap_cache_lock based on it
util_ldap_pre_config()			- registers the ldap_cache_mutex_type

util_ldap_cache_lock is used for all uldap_cache_XXXXX functions calling
LDAP_CACHE_LOCK() and by the following functions:

util_ldap_child_init()			- n/a
util_ldap_merge_config()		- set to base (server) config
util_ldap_post_config()			- created based on ldap_cache_mutex_type

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Inside util_ldap_post_config() -> ap_global_mutex_create() we called the functio
get_futex_filename(). It checks wether the mutex mech(anism) needs a backing
file or not (only if mech == APR_LOCK_FLOCK or APR_LOCK_FCNTL)

My dump had
st->util_ldap_cache_lock->proc_mutex->fname = /var/lock/apache2/ldap-cache.1368

Meaning that my lock was, for sure, APR_LOCK_FLOCK or, likely, APR_LOCK_FCNTL.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From our compilation flags:

$ apachectl -V

Server version: Apache/2.4.18 (Ubuntu)
Server built:   2018-03-01T18:29:12
Server's Module Magic Number: 20120211:52
Server loaded:  APR 1.5.2, APR-UTIL 1.5.4
Compiled using: APR 1.5.2, APR-UTIL 1.5.4
Architecture:   64-bit
Server MPM:     event
  threaded:     yes (fixed thread count)
    forked:     yes (variable process count)
Server compiled with....
 -D APR_HAS_SENDFILE
 -D APR_HAS_MMAP
 -D APR_HAVE_IPV6 (IPv4-mapped addresses enabled)
 -D APR_USE_SYSVSEM_SERIALIZE
 -D APR_USE_PTHREAD_SERIALIZE
 -D SINGLE_LISTEN_UNSERIALIZED_ACCEPT
 -D APR_HAS_OTHER_CHILD
 -D AP_HAVE_RELIABLE_PIPED_LOGS
 -D DYNAMIC_MODULE_LIMIT=256
 -D HTTPD_ROOT="/etc/apache2"
 -D SUEXEC_BIN="/usr/lib/apache2/suexec"
 -D DEFAULT_PIDLOG="/var/run/apache2.pid"
 -D DEFAULT_SCOREBOARD="logs/apache_runtime_status"
 -D DEFAULT_ERRORLOG="logs/error_log"
 -D AP_TYPES_CONFIG_FILE="mime.types"
 -D SERVER_CONFIG_FILE="apache2.conf"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since we've registered this locking mechanism, ldap_cache_mutex_type, as
"APR_LOCK_DEFAULT", we have to check how the APR_LOCK_DEFAULT logic is defined
inside APR lib.

The full call path is this:

util_ldap_post_config() >>> ap_global_mutex_create() >>>
 apr_global_mutex_create() >>> apr_proc_mutex_create() >>> proc_mutex_create()
 >>> proc_mutex_choose_method()

 And the "mech" used in util_ldap_post_config(), to decide type of mutex, comes
 from the ap_global_mutex_create() function, doing the mxcfg_lookup() with
 the hash type "ldap-cache" (as I showed before, APR_LOCK_DEFAULT).

 Then the proc_mutex_choose_method() function takes its decision on what locking
 type to use:

    switch (mech) {
    ...
    	case APR_LOCK_DEFAULT:
	#if APR_USE_FLOCK_SERIALIZE
	        new_mutex->inter_meth = &mutex_flock_methods;
	#elif APR_USE_SYSVSEM_SERIALIZE
	        new_mutex->inter_meth = &mutex_sysv_methods;
	#elif APR_USE_FCNTL_SERIALIZE
	        new_mutex->inter_meth = &mutex_fcntl_methods;
	#elif APR_USE_PROC_PTHREAD_SERIALIZE
	        new_mutex->inter_meth = &mutex_proc_pthread_methods;
	#elif APR_USE_POSIXSEM_SERIALIZE
	        new_mutex->inter_meth = &mutex_posixsem_methods;
	#else
	        return APR_ENOTIMPL;
	#endif

Meaning that default is set compile time and, in our case, it was FCNTL based,
based on the logic above AND the dump file containing the:

	st->util_ldap_cache_lock->proc_mutex->inter_meth->*_mutex_fcntl_* pointers

This decision path would have to have APR_USE_FCNTL_SERIALIZE set and this does
not happen for me, since the decision comes from the autoconf script:

# See which lock mechanism we'll select by default on this system.
# The last APR_DECIDE to execute sets the default.
# At this stage, we match the ordering in Apache 1.3
# which is (highest to lowest): sysvsem -> fcntl -> flock.
# POSIX semaphores and cross-process pthread mutexes are not
# used by default since they have less desirable behaviour when
# e.g. a process holding the mutex segfaults.
# The BEOSSEM decision doesn't require any substitutions but is
# included here to prevent the fcntl() branch being selected
# from the decision making.

From configure.in:

case $ac_decision in
    USE_FLOCK_SERIALIZE )
        flockser="1"
        ;;
    USE_FCNTL_SERIALIZE )
        fcntlser="1"
        ;;
    USE_SYSVSEM_SERIALIZE )
        sysvser="1"
        ;;
    USE_POSIXSEM_SERIALIZE )
        posixser="1"
        ;;
    USE_PROC_PTHREAD_SERIALIZE )
        procpthreadser="1"
        ;;
    USE_BEOSSEM )
        beossem="1"
        ;;
esac

And those variables are the ones defining the headers:

$ grep -ri APR_USE_FCNTL_SERIALIZE *
...
debian/build/include/apr.h:#define APR_USE_FCNTL_SERIALIZE           0
include/apr.h.in:#define APR_USE_FCNTL_SERIALIZE           @fcntlser@
...

This is what would make proc_mutex_choose_method() to decide to use fcntl
locking mechanism and you can see that, in my case, fakeroot debian/rules
was build-arch did NOT set that variable. In the configure output, you can see:

decision on apr_lock implementation method... SysV IPC semget()

Which means that the APR_DECIDE was sysvser, like described, as we can see:

$ grep -ri APR_USE_SYSVSEM_SERIALIZE *  | grep -v html
debian/build/include/apr.h:#define APR_USE_SYSVSEM_SERIALIZE         1
include/apr.h.in:#define APR_USE_SYSVSEM_SERIALIZE         @sysvser@

in the build dir.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, how was fcntl choosen as locking mech(anism) if APR_USE_FCNTL_SERIALIZE
is not set ? The only possibility I see is that in the beginning of
proc_mutex_choose_method, mech == APR_LOCK_FCNTL was passed as an argument,
and NOT APR_LOCK_DEFAULT, like it should have been in the "ldap-cache" type of
mutex, when being created. OR for the APR_LOCK_DEFAULT to be something else.

With that, I went to check what defined it and found apache's function:
ap_set_mutex(), called by apache "init core commands" logic. This function will
set the mechanism for APR_LOCK_DEFAULT depending on the configuration file
stanza (derd!) and with that I went for it and found:

Mutex file:${APACHE_LOCK_DIR} default

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY:

Now it makes more sense. So the "bug" here now is to find out why fcntl locking
did not guarantee atomicity for the LDAP operations, or even, if it should have
done (based on its premises). 

Another question that raises is, why to use fcntl as a backing mechanism for the
LDAP locking ? If the lock was supposed to be guaranteed among different nodes,
then backing the lock in a file, IF the name was based also on the instance id,
which in this case is not, it could make sense. But in a shared-threaded only
environment, why ?

TODOs:

(1)

I would like end user to test the LDAP caching operations/locking without fcntl
based locking. According to:

https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/core.html#mutex

It is possible to set a different locking mechanism to each of the subsystems
described in table "Mutex name, Module(s), Protected Resource". This, per se,
will likely guarantee the atomicity of the LDAP cache operations.

(2)

To investigate if there is some catch in regarding to using fcntl() in an
intensive I/O environment for backing up mutexes implementation. Is there any
fix related to fcntl() that should be picked OR any type of I/O configuration
(including page cache, filesystem mounting options, need for direct-io) in order
for it to be used ?

Eric,

A colleague of mine, or I, will get back to you with some answers on all this
investigation. Tks a lot!

> Another question that raises is, why to use fcntl as a backing mechanism for
> the
> LDAP locking ? If the lock was supposed to be guaranteed among different
> nodes,
> then backing the lock in a file, IF the name was based also on the instance
> id,
> which in this case is not, it could make sense. But in a shared-threaded only
> environment, why ?

the locking is only meant to be among the N children of a single instance / parent process. You should find the PID here is the parent pid. So I think this aspect is OK.

I have seen fcntl related errors on other OS'es, where APR might use it by default, related to EDEADLOCK being returned when two unrelated threads use two unrelated fcntl mutexes.

In a local test I set: `Mutex fcntl:/tmp/run default`

globally and added an assert to the two lock/unlock macros and got several aborts.  The asserts with sysvsem never fired.

I will be removing the macros and adding inline funcitons that log and abort on failure.

[Tue May 08 08:26:42.418299 2018] [ldap:crit] [pid 68897:tid 700008b10000] (11)Resource deadlock avoided: [client 127.0.0.1:60404] LDAP cache lock failed

Hi Rafael -- out of curiosity did you ever find how fcntl() came to be used here?

Hello Eric,

Sorry for taking so long in providing you feedback, I moved from one company to another and there is another engineer dealing with this case on the previous company (and I lost emails from this thread, only noticed it because debian bug merged this into its bug and I got my name highlighted).

Nevertheless, yes, I discovered - through the dump and execution logic - final user was enforcing it by configuration file without any particular reason for it. 

I didn't have the chance to ask final user to remove that and try again (which I think subsequent communication here might indicate as next steps), but I'm almost sure that this is indeed the issue.

Tks for providing feedback so fast to all my investigation!! The only thing here as a *TODO* for upstream work, if I might say that, would be to understand better why fcntl is the cause for the race (not guaranteeing atomicity). 

Likely a sync and/or I/O barrier issue ? Exactly how you described in your tests!

To follow up with results of testing non-file locking: yep, the end user we were working with initially had this in their config, as Rafael said:

Mutex file:${APACHE_LOCK_DIR} default

and we asked them to update it to not use file for ldap, by changing to:

Mutex file:${APACHE_LOCK_DIR} default
Mutex sem ldap-cache


After that change (done about 1 month ago) they restarted and have not seen the problem happen again.  I don't have any answer to why exactly they set the default to file locking.