[Clamav-devel] clamd: Keep scanning while reloading database

[Julius Plenz]

Hi, Mark!

* Mark Pizzolato - ClamAV-devel <clamav-devel at subscriptions.pizzolato.net> [2014-04-08 00:02]:
> > It appears that for every connection that is acceptey by clamd,
> > the current "engine" value is passed in the "conn" struct. The
> > engine struct has a ref count, and a process "grabs" the engine by
> > calling cl_engine_addref(), thus increasing the ref count. Only
> > when cl_engine_free() is called and the ref count is zero is the
> > object actually freed.

> It would seem that there is a race condition in this paradigm.  The
> reference to the engine object should be added when the engine value
> is set in the conn structure (this determining of the engine value
> AND the addition of the reference count should be done with the
> related mutex held).  The current paradigm seems to be creating an
> un-accounted reference and later on incrementing the reference
> value.  By the time that increment happens the engine value which
> was passed may have already been freed and thus the pointer being
> deference is no longer pointing at a valid object.

Yes, you are certainly right. Thanks for pointing this out! I will try
to work around this issue some time this week.

Julius