Avoid using PostmasterRandom() for DSM control segment ID.

Commits 470d886c3 et al intended to fix the problem that the postmaster
selected the same "random" DSM control segment ID on every start.  But
using PostmasterRandom() for that destroys the intended property that the
delay between random_start_time and random_stop_time will be unpredictable.
(Said delay is probably already more predictable than we could wish, but
that doesn't mean that reducing it by a couple orders of magnitude is OK.)
Revert the previous patch and add a comment warning against misuse of
PostmasterRandom.  Fix the original problem by calling srandom() early in
PostmasterMain, using a low-security seed that will later be overwritten
by PostmasterRandom.

Discussion: <20789.1474390434@sss.pgh.pa.us>

diff --git a/src/backend/postmaster/postmaster.c b/src/backend/postmaster/postmaster.c
index 67ccdce764454244e338ce1314a1cd7a81a78747..40995580af374d98afeeab28d3ee2b0b828900ce 100644 (file)
--- a/src/backend/postmaster/postmaster.c
+++ b/src/backend/postmaster/postmaster.c
@@ -403,6 +403,7 @@ static void processCancelRequest(Port *port, void *pkt);
 static int     initMasks(fd_set *rmask);
 static void report_fork_failure_to_client(Port *port, int errnum);
 static CAC_state canAcceptConnections(void);
+static long PostmasterRandom(void);
 static void RandomSalt(char *salt, int len);
 static void signal_child(pid_t pid, int signal);
 static bool SignalSomeChildren(int signal, int targets);
@@ -574,6 +575,16 @@ PostmasterMain(int argc, char *argv[])
         */
        umask(S_IRWXG | S_IRWXO);
 
+       /*
+        * Initialize random(3) so we don't get the same values in every run.
+        *
+        * Note: the seed is pretty predictable from externally-visible facts such
+        * as postmaster start time, so avoid using random() for security-critical
+        * random values during postmaster startup.  At the time of first
+        * connection, PostmasterRandom will select a hopefully-more-random seed.
+        */
+       srandom((unsigned int) (MyProcPid ^ MyStartTime));
+
        /*
         * By default, palloc() requests in the postmaster will be allocated in
         * the PostmasterContext, which is space that can be recycled by backends.
@@ -5099,8 +5110,12 @@ RandomSalt(char *salt, int len)
 
 /*
  * PostmasterRandom
+ *
+ * Caution: use this only for values needed during connection-request
+ * processing.  Otherwise, the intended property of having an unpredictable
+ * delay between random_start_time and random_stop_time will be broken.
  */
-long
+static long
 PostmasterRandom(void)
 {
        /*

diff --git a/src/backend/storage/ipc/dsm.c b/src/backend/storage/ipc/dsm.c
index edafe4a3b9f3e0d69a02b83e1afd29a589546bf3..d8066647a07598b63188635d167a8e6ab8ba96f5 100644 (file)
--- a/src/backend/storage/ipc/dsm.c
+++ b/src/backend/storage/ipc/dsm.c
@@ -36,7 +36,6 @@
 
 #include "lib/ilist.h"
 #include "miscadmin.h"
-#include "postmaster/postmaster.h"
 #include "storage/dsm.h"
 #include "storage/ipc.h"
 #include "storage/lwlock.h"
@@ -182,7 +181,7 @@ dsm_postmaster_startup(PGShmemHeader *shim)
        {
                Assert(dsm_control_address == NULL);
                Assert(dsm_control_mapped_size == 0);
-               dsm_control_handle = (dsm_handle) PostmasterRandom();
+               dsm_control_handle = random();
                if (dsm_control_handle == 0)
                        continue;
                if (dsm_impl_op(DSM_OP_CREATE, dsm_control_handle, segsize,

diff --git a/src/include/postmaster/postmaster.h b/src/include/postmaster/postmaster.h
index ef06d5d04c45ac573e907f75a362517d0a492575..b2d7776f2a8c74a6dcc0ff84a95c57928f25fcdb 100644 (file)
--- a/src/include/postmaster/postmaster.h
+++ b/src/include/postmaster/postmaster.h
@@ -48,7 +48,6 @@ extern const char *progname;
 
 extern void PostmasterMain(int argc, char *argv[]) pg_attribute_noreturn();
 extern void ClosePostmasterPorts(bool am_syslogger);
-extern long PostmasterRandom(void);
 
 extern int     MaxLivePostmasterChildren(void);