Move TCPSession lifetime to shared_ptr ownership, fix the whole double-delete/UAF class of crash

Every crash root-caused earlier tonight (Subscription::subscribers,
TCPServer::sessions, the Socket::write()/eventReceived() re-arm race) was
the same underlying shape: some thread calling a method - or Thread::run()
calling delete - on a TCPSession* while another thread concurrently freed
that same object, because nothing actually guaranteed the object stayed
alive for the duration of a call. Mutex-based patches at each individual
call site kept narrowing the window without closing it (confirmed live,
repeatedly, via AddressSanitizer under concurrent load - each fix produced
a new, different crash signature at the same underlying race), and adding
more locks around every write() call also works against the fifo-based
design's own goal: no thread should have to block just to hand a message
to another thread's session.

TCPSession now derives from std::enable_shared_from_this<TCPSession> and
exposes pin() - a safe upgrade from a stored raw pointer to a real,
ownership-extending shared_ptr, returning nullptr instead of throwing once
the object's real owner has let go. TCPServer::sessions is now the one
real strong-owning shared_ptr<TCPSession> per live session; every other
place that stores a TCPSession* (Subscription::subscribers, Zephora's own
sessionsByPlayerName, GroupObject's membership list, etc.) is just a
non-owning observer and must pin() before touching the object.

A second, distinct problem: Thread::run()'s epoll dispatch starts from a
raw void* of unknown validity. An early version of this fix used
dynamic_cast<TCPSession*> to identify session objects before calling
pin() - confirmed live via AddressSanitizer that dynamic_cast itself
segfaults on a stale pointer, since it has to read the (potentially freed)
object's own vtable to work at all. TCPSession::tryGet()/TCPServer::
isKnownListeningSocket() replace that: both look the raw pointer up as a
key in a registry, never dereferencing it for the check itself - safe to
call on any value, live session, immortal listening socket, or fully
freed garbage alike.

Verified via an AddressSanitizer-instrumented build under sustained
concurrent load (up to 15-way parallel connect/subscribe/create/disconnect
cycles, multiple rounds, 100+ total connections) with zero errors, then
against the real production build with a genuine 500-connection load test
(463/500 succeeded; the rest hit the process's own file-descriptor
ulimit under peak burst, an unrelated and separately deferred tuning
matter, not a crash).

Files touched: TCPSession.h (enable_shared_from_this, pin(), the tryGet()
registry), TCPServer.h/.cpp (sessions as shared_ptr, isKnownListening
Socket() registry, lock made protected for subclasses), Thread.cpp (the
whole dispatch rewrite), Subscription.cpp/SubscriptionManager.cpp (every
subscriber write() site now pin()s first), ConsoleServer.cpp (logSend()
was iterating `sessions` with no lock at all - fixed alongside the type
change it needed anyway).
This commit is contained in:
Matt Arant committed 2026-09-08 02:24:09 +00:00
1 parent 8009564a7a
commit d058322cc6
10 files changed
+411 -64

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+62 -6
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@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@
# include "TCPSession.h"
# include "TCPSocket.h"
# include "TLSInfo.h"
# include <mutex>
# include <set>
namespace core {
@@ -60,8 +62,20 @@ namespace core {
///
/// The list of sessions that are currently open and being maintained by this object.
///
std::vector<TCPSession *> sessions;
/// This is the one real, strong-owning reference per live session -
/// see TCPSession::pin()'s own doc comment for the full reasoning.
/// Every other place that keeps a TCPSession* around (Subscription::
/// subscribers, a Zephora-specific sessionsByPlayerName map, etc.)
/// is just a non-owning observer and must pin() before touching the
/// object. A session stops existing, for real, the instant its
/// entry here is erased and every other outstanding pin() (if any
/// thread happened to be mid-call) has released its own reference -
/// removeFromSessionList() is the only place that ever removes an
/// entry, and Thread::run() calls it instead of ever calling
/// `delete` on a TCPSession directly (see its own comment).
///
std::vector<std::shared_ptr<TCPSession>> sessions;
///
/// The commands object is a CommandList and is used to store Command objects to be
@@ -119,10 +133,13 @@ namespace core {
///
/// Use the getSessionByAlias to retrieve a session pointer by the value
/// of the alias pointer.
/// of the alias pointer. Returns an already-pin()'d shared_ptr (null
/// if not found) rather than a raw pointer, so callers can't
/// accidentally hold onto - or use - a reference that isn't actually
/// keeping the session alive.
///
TCPSession *getSessionByAlias(void *alias);
std::shared_ptr<TCPSession> getSessionByAlias(void *alias);
protected:
///
@@ -159,9 +176,48 @@ namespace core {
int processCommand(coreutils::ZString &request, TCPSession &session) override;
protected:
// Was private - ConsoleServer::logSend() (and any other subclass
// that iterates `sessions`, itself public further up) needs to be
// able to synchronize against the exact same mutex
// connectionRequest()/removeFromSessionList() already use, rather
// than reading a shared_ptr vector with no locking of its own.
std::mutex lock;
public:
///
/// A listening TCPServer/ConsoleServer (as opposed to an accepted
/// TCPSession) is constructed once, directly by main(), and lives
/// for the whole process - never through the shared_ptr-based
/// ownership TCPSession::registerLive()/pin() provide (see their
/// own comments), since nothing ever calls `new` on one of these.
/// Thread::run()'s epoll dispatch still needs a SAFE way to tell
/// "this raw pointer is one of those known-immortal listening
/// sockets, fine to call methods on directly" apart from "this is
/// an unrecognized/stale pointer that must not be touched at all"
/// (see TCPSession::tryGet()'s own comment on why dynamic_cast
/// can't make that distinction safely). Registering `this` once,
/// in the constructor, into this tiny set is that signal - it's
/// checked by address only, never dereferenced for the check
/// itself.
///
static bool isKnownListeningSocket(void *ptr) {
std::lock_guard<std::mutex> guard(listeningSocketsMutex());
return listeningSockets().count(ptr) > 0;
}
private:
TCPSession *accept();
std::mutex lock;
static std::mutex &listeningSocketsMutex() {
static std::mutex m;
return m;
}
static std::set<void *> &listeningSockets() {
static std::set<void *> s;
return s;
}
};
}