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Package: needrestart
Version: 3.6-4+deb12u1
Severity: normal
Tags: patch

Dear Maintainer,

When running 'needrestart -b' on some AMD systems I get the following uninitialized variable warning. It also does not report the expected
microcode version (NEEDRESTART-UCEXP).

Use of uninitialized value $ucode_vars{"AVAIL"} in concatenation (.) or string at /usr/sbin/needrestart line 941.

On ARM systems, it gives the following 2 uninitialized variable warnings.

Use of uninitialized value $ucode_vars{"CURRENT"} in concatenation (.) or string at /usr/sbin/needrestart line 940.
Use of uninitialized value $ucode_vars{"AVAIL"} in concatenation (.) or string at /usr/sbin/needrestart line 941.

I first thought this was a regression of bug #1026927, but find this
is actually a different bug with similar behavior.

The problem stems from NeedRestart::uCode::Intel:::nr_ucode_check_real
running "successfully" on non-intel platforms. The reason only some
AMD systems are affected is that nr_ucode_check_real() for AMD and
Intel may be run in either order, depending on the order they are
returned by findsubmod(). If AMD::nr_ucode_check_real() is run first,
the bug does not appear.

Here is sample output from 3 systems: a "failing" AMD, a "passing"
AMD, and an arm7l (banana pi). I've trimmed (w/ grep) the stderr from
these to only the pertinent lines, please let me know if you want the
entire output.

amd_sys1# needrestart -b -v 2>/tmp/a
NEEDRESTART-VER: 3.6
NEEDRESTART-KCUR: 6.1.0-17-amd64
NEEDRESTART-KEXP: 6.1.0-18-amd64
NEEDRESTART-KSTA: 3
NEEDRESTART-UCSTA: 1
NEEDRESTART-UCCUR: 0x600063e
NEEDRESTART-UCEXP:
amd_sys1# grep -e NeedRestart::uCode -e uninitialized /tmp/a
[ucode] using NeedRestart::uCode::Intel
[ucode] using NeedRestart::uCode::AMD
Use of uninitialized value $ucode_vars{"AVAIL"} in concatenation (.) or string at /usr/sbin/needrestart line 941.

amd_sys2# needrestart -b -v 2>/tmp/a
NEEDRESTART-VER: 3.6
NEEDRESTART-KCUR: 6.1.0-17-amd64
NEEDRESTART-KEXP: 6.1.0-18-amd64
NEEDRESTART-KSTA: 3
NEEDRESTART-UCSTA: 1
NEEDRESTART-UCCUR: 0x06000852
NEEDRESTART-UCEXP: 0x06000852
amd_sys2# grep -e NeedRestart::uCode -e uninitialized /tmp/a
[ucode] using NeedRestart::uCode::AMD
[ucode] using NeedRestart::uCode::Intel

arm7l_sys# needrestart -b -v 2>/tmp/a
NEEDRESTART-VER: 3.6
NEEDRESTART-KCUR: 6.1.0-17-armmp-lpae
NEEDRESTART-KEXP: 6.1.0-18-armmp-lpae
NEEDRESTART-KSTA: 3
NEEDRESTART-UCSTA: 0
NEEDRESTART-SVC: irqbalance
NEEDRESTART-SVC: lircd
NEEDRESTART-SVC: lircmd
NEEDRESTART-SVC: openbsd-inetd
NEEDRESTART-SVC: ssh
arm7l_sys# grep -e uninitial -e ucode /tmp/a
[ucode] using NeedRestart::uCode::Intel
[ucode] using NeedRestart::uCode::AMD
[ucode] #0 did not get available microcode version
Use of uninitialized value $ucode_vars{"CURRENT"} in concatenation (.) or string at /usr/sbin/needrestart line 940.
Use of uninitialized value $ucode_vars{"AVAIL"} in concatenation (.) or string at /usr/sbin/needrestart line 941.


The problem comes from uCode::Intel::nr_ucode_check_real() still not
dying on non-Intel processors, and actually returning a "CURRENT"
microcode version on AMD processors. This looks to be checked for in uCode::Intel::nr_ucode_init(), but this function is never called.

The following patch adds a call to this so that nr_ucode_check_real()
is only called for architectures that successfully pass
nr_ucode_init(). An alternative would be to modify uCode::Intel::nr_ucode_check_real() to do the equivalent checks like
uCode::AMD does.



--- /tmp/uCode.pm.dist 2024-02-11 09:28:27.051119002 -0700
+++ uCode.pm 2024-02-11 10:14:26.905533440 -0700
@@ -152,6 +152,11 @@

# call ucode modules
foreach my $pkg (@PKGS) {
+ eval "${pkg}::nr_ucode_init();";
+ if ( $@ ) {
+ print STDERR $@ if ($debug);
+ next;
+ }
my @nvars;
eval "\@nvars = ${pkg}::nr_ucode_check_real(\$debug, \$ui, \$processors{\$pid});";
if ( $@ && $debug ) {






-- Package-specific info:
needrestart output:
Your outdated processes:
emacs[9574, 6843, 10275, 3922, 6197]



-- System Information:
Debian Release: 12.0
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 6.1.0-17-686-pae (SMP w/6 CPU threads; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968) (ignored: LC_ALL set to C), LANGUAGE not set
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: sysvinit (via /sbin/init)

Versions of packages needrestart depends on:
ii binutils 2.40-2
ii dpkg

Hey,

Just like with the previous bug (#1026927), it looks like there's more
to this one. Trying the patch on several more systems I run into the
same symptoms on some. Again, these have the same symptoms but
differing causes (full patch included). What I found was:


On an intel system, where uCode/AMD.pm was run before uCode/Intel.pm

intel_sys1# needrestart -b
NEEDRESTART-VER: 3.6
NEEDRESTART-KCUR: 6.1.0-18-amd64
NEEDRESTART-KEXP: 6.1.0-18-amd64
NEEDRESTART-KSTA: 1
NEEDRESTART-UCSTA: 1
Use of uninitialized value $ucode_vars{"CURRENT"} in concatenation (.) or string at /usr/sbin/needrestart line 940.
NEEDRESTART-UCCUR:
Use of uninitialized value $ucode_vars{"AVAIL"} in concatenation (.) or string at /usr/sbin/needrestart line 941.
NEEDRESTART-UCEXP:

But we don't get the 'Use of uninitialized value' when run as
`needrestart -b -v`. The issue here is that nr_ucode_check keeps
going after the "eval ... ${pkg}::nr_ucode_check_real..." fails
unless $debug is set. Thus, without $debug, thi saves off the
unintialized values from AMD.pm as "the good ones", so we get the
error.

On a VM running with an AMD processor but without package
amd64-microcode, and also directly on an AMD system with a processor new enough that it does not have a microcode version lin amd64-microcode, I get
the following identical results.

amd_vm1# needrestart -b
NEEDRESTART-VER: 3.6
NEEDRESTART-KCUR: 6.1.0-18-amd64
NEEDRESTART-KEXP: 6.1.0-18-amd64
NEEDRESTART-KSTA: 1
NEEDRESTART-UCSTA: 1
NEEDRESTART-UCCUR: 0xa0011d1
Use of uninitialized value $ucode_vars{"AVAIL"} in concatenation (.) or string at /usr/sbin/needrestart line 941.
NEEDRESTART-UCEXP:


amd_sys3# needrestart -b
NEEDRESTART-VER: 3.6
NEEDRESTART-KCUR: 6.1.0-18-amd64
NEEDRESTART-KEXP: 6.1.0-18-amd64
NEEDRESTART-KSTA: 1
NEEDRESTART-UCSTA: 1
NEEDRESTART-UCCUR: 0x6006705
Use of uninitialized value $ucode_vars{"AVAIL"} in concatenation (.) or string at /usr/sbin/needrestart line 941.
NEEDRESTART-UCEXP:

This comes from AMD.pm not setting $ucode_vars{"AVAIL"} if it doesn't
find any matching available versions. compare_ucode_versions()
handles, this as expected, but leaves $ucode_vars{"AVAIL"} unset to
cause problems later when run with -b.


The attached patch fixes includes the previous patch and also fixes
these 2 issues.

Hope this helps,
George


--- /tmp/uCode.pm.dist 2024-02-13 09:20:29.236867717 -0700
+++ /usr/share/perl5/NeedRestart/uCode.pm 2024-02-13 09:33:23.099742955 -0700
@@ -152,10 +152,15 @@

# call ucode modules
foreach my $pkg (@PKGS) {
+ eval "${pkg}::nr_ucode_init();";
+ if ( $@ ) {
+ print STDERR $@ if ($debug);
+ next;
+ }
my @nvars;
eval "\@nvars = ${pkg}::nr_ucode_check_real(\$debug, \$ui, \$processors{\$pid});";
- if ( $@ && $debug ) {
- print STDERR $@;
+ if ( $@ ) {
+ print STDERR $@ if ($debug);
$ui->progress_step;
next;
}
@@ -174,6 +179,10 @@

$ui->progress_fin;

+ if ( $state == NRM_CURRENT && ! grep ( ( $_ eq "AVAIL"), @vars ) ) {
+ push(@vars, "AVAIL", "unavailable");
+ }
+
return ( $state, @vars );
}

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

George Robbert wrote:

On an intel system, where uCode/AMD.pm was run before uCode/Intel.pm

intel_sys1# needrestart -b
NEEDRESTART-VER: 3.6
NEEDRESTART-KCUR: 6.1.0-18-amd64
NEEDRESTART-KEXP: 6.1.0-18-amd64
NEEDRESTART-KSTA: 1
NEEDRESTART-UCSTA: 1
Use of uninitialized value $ucode_vars{"CURRENT"} in concatenation (.) or string at /usr/sbin/needrestart line 940.
NEEDRESTART-UCCUR:
Use of uninitialized value $ucode_vars{"AVAIL"} in concatenation (.) or string at /usr/sbin/needrestart line 941.
NEEDRESTART-UCEXP:

I have been seeing these exact uninitialized value errors on my
machines too. Very annoying as I am often using dsh to scan a large
collective of systems and the noise from these errors obscures the
information want to read.

The attached patch fixes includes the previous patch and also fixes
these 2 issues.

I have applied this second patch from George on my systems both Stable
and Unstable and it has solved the uninitialized value errors for me.
I saw no problems patching or running. It is oh so very nice not to
be seeing those uninitialized value errors.

Example on an Debian Unstable Sid system.

root@clash:/# needrestart -b
NEEDRESTART-VER: 3.6
NEEDRESTART-KCUR: 6.4.0-4-amd64
NEEDRESTART-KEXP: 6.4.0-4-amd64
NEEDRESTART-KSTA: 1
NEEDRESTART-UCSTA: 1
Use of uninitialized value $ucode_vars{"CURRENT"} in concatenation (.) or string at /usr/sbin/needrestart line 940.
NEEDRESTART-UCCUR:
Use of uninitialized value $ucode_vars{"AVAIL"} in concatenation (.) or string at /usr/sbin/needrestart line 941.
NEEDRESTART-UCEXP:

root@clash:/# patch -p0 < /var/tmp/needrestart-ghr-2.patch
patching file /usr/share/perl5/NeedRestart/uCode.pm
Hunk #2 succeeded at 179 with fuzz 1.

root@clash:/# needrestart -b
NEEDRESTART-VER: 3.6
NEEDRESTART-KCUR: 6.4.0-4-amd64
NEEDRESTART-KEXP: 6.4.0-4-amd64
NEEDRESTART-KSTA: 1
NEEDRESTART-UCSTA: 0

Looks good to me! :-)

Bob

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)