[Pkg-nagios-devel] Bug#514588: check_ping: incorrectly parses ping6 output sometimes

[Matija Nalis]

Package: nagios-plugins-basic
Version: 1.4.5-1etch1
Severity: normal
Tags: patch


problem can usually (depending on network config) be reproduced by:
check_ping -H [invalid-ipv6-address] -w 5000,100% -c 5000,100% -p 1

Debian's ping6 may produce output in the following format:

3 packets transmitted, 0 received, +3 errors, 100% packet loss, time
2009ms

There's a corresponding pattern in check_ping.c:450:

"%*d packets transmitted, %*d received, +%*d errors, %d%% packet loss"

but the pattern in check_ping.c:448 matches first:

"%*d packets transmitted, %*d received, %d%% loss, time"

because sscanf interprets "+3" as a match for "%d". Although the rest
of the pattern doesn't match, the number of successful assignments
(and thus the return value of sscanf) is still 1.

A simple way to make sure the whole pattern matches is to add a "%n"
specifier at the end, which will assign the number of characters
matched by that point. (The same trick is used in check_http.c.)
There seems to be some confusion whether "%n" affects the return value
of sscanf, so it's safer to check the assigned number of characters.

A bug was reported a year ago to the upstream
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1894850&group_id=29880&atid=397597
but it seems to be dead.

Patch to fix it attached.


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 4.0
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Shell:  /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.24-etchnhalf.1-amd64
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)

Versions of packages nagios-plugins-basic depends on:
ii  iputils-ping           3:20020927-6      Tools to test the reachability of 
ii  libc6                  2.3.6.ds1-13etch8 GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libssl0.9.8            0.9.8c-4etch4     SSL shared libraries
ii  procps                 1:3.2.7-3         /proc file system utilities
ii  ucf                    2.0020            Update Configuration File: preserv

nagios-plugins-basic recommends no packages.

-- no debconf information
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: ping-sscanf.diff
Type: text/x-c
Size: 3727 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-nagios-devel/attachments/20090209/f00c7798/attachment.bin