cant store article: bogus Xref: header in INN 2.5 ?

[Matija Nalis]

On Mon, Sep 05, 2011 at 12:56:42AM +0200, Julien ?LIE wrote:
> Hi all,
>
>> I have a new patch.  I will post it tomorrow, after having checked
>> that everything is all right.
>
> I believe we need a complete fix for all the uses of the Xref: header  
> field.  I came up with a partial patch, only fixing the issue you  
> mentioned.  However, other places should be fixed in the code.

Would it work to fix this one reported issue and not lead to new
problems? If so, can you send me that partial patch so I can see how
it fares?

I'd rather run with debian version + small patch, than to have to
repackage whole latest version...

> It means that it will probably delay the release of INN 2.5.3.  Though I  
> am not very enthusiastic about modifying how the Xref: header is parsed  
> in critical programs just before the release of a new version, I think  

Well, you can always release 2.5.3 now without this fix, and then add
full fix in next version when it can be better tested.

> it should be done because bad things can occur with the current state of  
> the parsing.
> As Matija discovered, a 2.5 slave fed by a 2.4 upstream leads to issues.  
>  We have to change the Xref: parsing in both tradspool storage and  
> overview data.
>
> Other affected programs parsing Xref: header fields, are:
> archive, expire, makehistory, overchan, and also nnrpd (because of  
> virtual hosting and NEWNEWS checks).

oh, so fixing innd to receive Xref with extra space might then break
nnrpd, expire, makehistory, etc? That is not very good, yes, and it
would need complete fix or nothing..

As a quick kludge, is it possible just for the "bogus Xref: header"
error not to trigger periodic server throttling? It would be a
stopgap measure (which then should not delay your releasing 2.5.3)
and a full fix can be implemented in 2.5.4 later (when it gets some
more time and testing)

Thanks,
Matija

-- 
Opinions above are GNU-copylefted.