killall can't kill processes with names >15 bytes long (Ubuntu 12.04)

[jan5000]

[Impact] killall doesn't work with long process names.
[Test Case] See the detailed test case below.
[Regression Potential] The changes files also affect fuser (slightly) and pstree, so it'd be worth making sure those still work properly.

Original report follows:

"prog_one_one_three" is an arbitrary program (couple of lines of 'C', sleep () loop). What the program does is, is a don't care.

ubuntu@test-0002:~$ ./prog_one_two_three&
[1] 1927
ubuntu@test-0002:~$ ps aux | grep prog_one_two_three
ubuntu 1927 0.0 0.0 4148 352 pts/0 S 08:20 0:00 ./prog_one_two_three
ubuntu 1933 0.0 0.0 9392 888 pts/0 S+ 08:21 0:00 grep --color=auto prog_one_two_three
ubuntu@test-0002:~$ killall prog_one_two_three
prog_one_two_three: no process found

****** Can't kill it *****

ubuntu@test-0002:~$ cp prog_one_two_three prog
ubuntu@test-0002:~$ ./prog&
[2] 1936
ubuntu@test-0002:~$ killall prog
[2]+ Terminated ./prog
ubuntu@test-0002:~$

******* KIll OK *********

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: bash 4.2-1ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-21.34-generic 3.2.13
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-21-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.0-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sun Apr 1 08:33:13 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release amd64 (20101007)
SourcePackage: bash
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-03-31 (0 days ago)

[Tyler Hicks (tyhicks)]

Thanks for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. We appreciate the difficulties you are facing, but this appears to be a "regular" (non-security) bug. I have unmarked it as a security issue since this bug does not show evidence of allowing attackers to cross privilege boundaries nor directly cause loss of data/privacy. Please feel free to report any other bugs you may find.

[Tyler Hicks (tyhicks)]

This regression was introduced by debian/patches/psmisc_strcpy_overflow in 22.15-2. Debian released a fixed this regression with 22.16-1.

With only a quick glance it looks like a combination of at least 2 upstream commits, and possibly more, collectively fix this bug. More investigation is needed.

[Jeremy Nickurak (nickurak)]

I can confirm that compiling debian's fixed version under current ubuntu 12.04 successfully addresses the problem.

[RobertH (robert-hunt)]

I still have this bug

ps xa | grep myS
 6615 pts/1 S+ 0:00 /bin/bash ./myScript.sh
 6619 pts/0 S+ 0:00 grep --color=auto myS
bss@Frog:~$ killall -v myScript.sh
Killed myScript.sh(6615) with signal 15
bss@Froggy:~$ ps xa | grep myS
 6636 pts/1 S+ 0:00 /bin/bash ./myScriptWithALongName.sh
 6639 pts/0 S+ 0:00 grep --color=auto myS
bss@Frog:~$ killall -v myScriptWithALongName.sh
myScriptWithALongName.sh: no process found
bss@Frog:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
Release: 12.04
Codename: precise

[Micah Gersten (micahg)]

Fixed in quantal with 22.16-1ubuntu1

[Adam Conrad (adconrad)]

Hello jan5000, or anyone else affected,

Accepted psmisc into precise-proposed. The package will build now and be available at http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/psmisc/22.15-2ubuntu1.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please change the bug tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not, change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

[MMlosh (mmlosh)]

I confirm that psmiscs installed from precise-proposed can successfully "killall plugin-container"
My installation is a bit messed up (and has no unity/gnome/kde), so I won't change the tag to "testing done".

But the same issue in pgrep (bug #954602) is still present

[Clint Byrum (clint-fewbar)]

I verified it using the given test case as well. Marking verification-done.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package psmisc - 22.15-2ubuntu1.1

---------------
psmisc (22.15-2ubuntu1.1) precise-proposed; urgency=low

  * Backport from 22.16:
    - Fix matching long commands in killall (LP: #970638).
 -- Colin Watson <email address hidden> Thu, 12 Jul 2012 17:57:23 +0100

[MMlosh (mmlosh)]

The same issue in pgrep (bug #954602) is still there.
It would be great if that could be fixed together with this one

[Pietro Gagliardi (andlabs/pietro10) (andlabs)]

Several years on, this is still present in wily. I'm not sure if it's the same root cause, but pgrep plugin-container doesn't work. Annoying, as I typically do kill -9 `pgrep xxx`, and killing Nightly doesn't kill plugin-container (it will die some time later, causing apport to complain).