systemd crashes with Assertion 'current[*l + 1] == quotechars[0]' failed at ../src/shared/util.c:583 with invalid line break escapes

[Martin Pitt]

Reproducer:
 - Boot current vivid amd64 VM
 - sudo add-apt-repository ppa:maas-maintainers/experimental
 - sudo apt update
 - sudo apt install isc-dhcp-server
 - sudo apt install maas-dhcp

SRU TEST CASE (do this in a VM!)
 - Create a /lib/systemd/system/broken.service with the contents as in comment 7. Make sure that there is a trailing space after the "true \ " (Launchpad filtered that out in the comment!).
 - sudo systemctl status broken.service
 - This crashes pid 1 in vivid final, and should just complain a broken .service file with the fix.

ProblemType: Crash
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.04
Package: systemd 219-7ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.19.0-15.15-generic 3.19.3
Uname: Linux 3.19.0-15-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.17.2-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Apr 22 17:04:42 2015
ExecutablePath: /lib/systemd/systemd
ExecutableTimestamp: 1429391580
Lsusb: Error: command ['lsusb'] failed with exit code 1: unable to initialize libusb: -99
MachineType: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996)
ProcCmdline: /sbin/init
ProcCwd: /
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=linux
 PATH=(custom, no user)
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.19.0-15-generic root=UUID=6a708076-c5ee-4e4f-998a-4aa5ed4c3850 ro console=ttyS0
Signal: 6
SourcePackage: systemd
SystemdFailedUnits: Error: command ['systemctl', 'status', '--full', 'Error:'] failed with exit code 1: Failed to get properties: Activation of org.freedesktop.systemd1 timed out
UdevLog: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/var/log/udev'
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups:

dmi.bios.date: 04/01/2014
dmi.bios.vendor: SeaBIOS
dmi.bios.version: 1.7.5-20150306_163512-brownie
dmi.chassis.type: 1
dmi.chassis.vendor: QEMU
dmi.chassis.version: pc-i440fx-utopic
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnSeaBIOS:bvr1.7.5-20150306_163512-brownie:bd04/01/2014:svnQEMU:pnStandardPC(i440FX+PIIX,1996):pvrpc-i440fx-utopic:cvnQEMU:ct1:cvrpc-i440fx-utopic:
dmi.product.name: Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996)
dmi.product.version: pc-i440fx-utopic
dmi.sys.vendor: QEMU

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Simpler reproducer which will not cause a crash:

$ cat test.service
[Unit]
Description=test

[Service]
ExecStart=/bin/sh -ec '\
    true \
    $Y'

$ sudo systemd-analyze verify test.service
Assertion 'current[*l + 1] == quotechars[0]' failed at ../src/shared/util.c:583, function split(). Aborting.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

This happens because there is/was a space after the \ in the second line. This is invalid shell, but instead of crashing, systemd should just fail the unit because of bad syntax.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Fixed upstream in http://cgit.freedesktop.org/systemd/systemd/commit/?id=470dca63cd2

[Adam Conrad (adconrad)]

Hello Martin, or anyone else affected,

Accepted systemd into vivid-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/systemd/219-7ubuntu4 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 add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, and change the tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and 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!

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

I ran the test case on the package from -proposed, and it works as expected now.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package systemd - 219-7ubuntu4

---------------
systemd (219-7ubuntu4) vivid; urgency=medium

  * hwdb: Fix wireless switch on Dell Latitude (LP: #1441849)
  * Fix assertion crash when reading a service file with missing ' and
    trailing space. (LP: #1447243)
  * Fix double free crash in "systemctl enable" when calling update-rc.d and
    the latter fails. (LP: #1426588)
 -- Martin Pitt <email address hidden> Thu, 23 Apr 2015 11:14:16 +0100

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

The verification of the Stable Release Update for systemd has completed successfully and the package has now been released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.