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crash utility invoked with wrong arguments can consume all available memory

This document (7009115) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Service Pack 3
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 Service Pack 4

Situation

Crash  is a tool for interactively analyzing the state of the Linux system while it is running, or after a kernel crash has occurred and a core dump has been created.

If crash is invoked with a wrong set of arguments, it can consume all available memory and the machine will be unusable until hard  rebootet.

Example for a bad invocation (do NOT use this!):

crash vmlinux-2.6.16.60-0.39.3-smp vmlinux-2.6.16.60-0.39.3-kdump vmcore

Instead a correct command would be:

crash /boot/System.map-2.6.16.60-0.39.3-smp  vmlinux-2.6.16.60-0.39.3-kdump  vmcore


Resolution

Issue is reported to development, release date of a fixed version of the crash utility is unknown at the moment.

See the manpage for crash for further information about how to use it correctly.

man 8 crash

crash versions up to and including at least crash-4.0.4.10-4.12.1 are affected.

Disclaimer

This Support Knowledgebase provides a valuable tool for SUSE customers and parties interested in our products and solutions to acquire information, ideas and learn from one another. Materials are provided for informational, personal or non-commercial use within your organization and are presented "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND.

  • Document ID:7009115
  • Creation Date: 04-Aug-2011
  • Modified Date:03-Mar-2020
    • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

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