---
id: "bug-1406"
status: "fixed"
status_updated: "2026-09-24"
status_note: ""
component: "controller"
severity: "crash"
timestamp: "2026-07-03T08:00:00.000Z"
last_seen: "2026-09-19T09:00:00Z"
occurrences: 2
files: ["src/controller/testsuite/test_ha_vep_teardown.c"]
tags: ["testsuite", "controller", "segv", "ssl", "iomgr", "pre-existing", "raft-apply-decoupling"]
related: []
legacy: true
---

# bug-1406: controller_unit_test SIGSEGV (full run, no --run filter): Thread 1 crashes in SSL_CTX_free()…

## Description
controller_unit_test SIGSEGV (full run, no --run filter): Thread 1 crashes in SSL_CTX_free() called from iomgr_fini() during test_ha_vep_teardown.c:271 (test_vep_teardown_runs_after_inflight), which runs at controller_test.c main() TEST(test_ha_vep_teardown). Kills the whole binary before any later-registered TEST() can run, so a bare `controller_unit_test` invocation with no --run filter never reaches a final summary and the exit code is 139 (SIGSEGV), not a Unity pass/fail count.

## Environment
_Not recorded (migrated from buglog.json)._

## Reproduction
_Not recorded (migrated from buglog.json)._

## Root cause
ROOT-CAUSED 2026-07-09: iomgr_init() (src/lib/netio.c:1168-1184) only ever initialized iomgr_t's `lock` and `epoll_fd` fields -- it never set `ssl_ctx` (or `worker`). Every production caller embeds iomgr_t inside a calloc'd/static context struct (cluster_t.iomgr, xce_ctx_t.iomgr), which masked the gap. test_ha_vep_teardown.c stack-allocates `iomgr_t iomgr;` at 4 call sites (lines 235, 294, 349, 476) WITHOUT a memset -- unlike the sibling libxce tests (test_netio_arm_failure.c:52, test_request_send_propagation.c:34) which explicitly `memset(&iomgr, 0, sizeof(iomgr))` before iomgr_init, establishing the real (undocumented) contract. Left un-zeroed, `ssl_ctx` holds whatever garbage bit pattern occupies that stack slot -- non-deterministic across runs/process history (confirmed intermittent: some full-suite runs exit 0, others SIGSEGV, matching the reported non-strictly-deterministic behavior). iomgr_fini()'s `if (iomgr->ssl_ctx != NULL) SSL_CTX_free(...)` guard then passes on that garbage pointer, and SSL_CTX_free() dereferences a wild address -> SIGSEGV. Proven deterministically with a standalone repro (poisoned an iomgr_t with 0xAB, called the real iomgr_init()+iomgr_fini() from libxce.a) producing an identical backtrace (SSL_CTX_free <- iomgr_fini netio.c:1262 <- caller). gdb backtrace from the original report: SSL_CTX_free (libssl.so.3) <- iomgr_fini (netio.c:1262) <- test_vep_teardown_runs_after_inflight (test_ha_vep_teardown.c:271) <- UnityDefaultTestRun <- test_ha_vep_teardown (test_ha_vep_teardown.c:630) <- main (controller_test.c). Not a double-free/UAF and not a cross-test state leak -- iomgr_set_ssl_ctx() is never called anywhere in test_ha_vep_teardown.c, so no real SSL_CTX ownership is even in play; it is purely uninitialized-memory read.

## Fix
FIXED 2026-07-09: src/lib/netio.c iomgr_init() now explicitly sets `iomgr->ssl_ctx = NULL;` and `iomgr->worker = 0;` before touching lock/epoll_fd, so iomgr_init() fully establishes iomgr_t's invariants itself instead of assuming the caller pre-zeroed the struct -- mirrors the same file's do_endpoint_init(), which already fully initializes every endpoint_t field rather than relying on calloc. Verified safe for all production callers (xcectx.c, myapp.c, cluster.c): every one calls iomgr_set_ssl_ctx() AFTER iomgr_init(), never before, so clearing ssl_ctx in iomgr_init cannot clobber a caller-supplied value. No test file was modified -- the library-level fix protects every current and future caller, including the 4 unguarded stack declarations in test_ha_vep_teardown.c. Verified: (1) standalone ASAN repro poisoning the stack before iomgr_init now shows ssl_ctx == NULL post-init and iomgr_fini() returns cleanly instead of crashing; (2) rebuilt controller_unit_test and ran the full suite (no --run filter) repeatedly under ASAN (detect_leaks=0) with zero SIGSEGVs across all runs -- one full run captured 265 Tests / 0 Failures / 0 Ignored, with all 6 tests in the test_ha_vep_teardown group (including test_vep_teardown_runs_after_inflight) passing their own assertions, not just failing to crash.

## Verification
_Not recorded (migrated from buglog.json)._

## References
_Not recorded (migrated from buglog.json)._