Crashing Linux with mkisofs 1.12b5

[Riley Williams]

Hi there.

How to crash a RedHat Linux 6.1 system running raw kernel 2.2.14:

 1. NFS mount the tree you wish to turn into a CD-ROM over
    a 10baseT network.

 2. Set mkisofs running to turn that tree into a local ISO
    image. Let its scan of files complete, and wait until it
    starts constructing the ISO image (with the % complete
    messages).

 3. On the system the tree is NFS mounted from, delete or
    rename one of the files BEFORE mkisofs gets to it.

Result: mkisofs produces a "can't find file" error message, then locks
solid (such that even `kill -9` doesn't kill it), and Linux itself
becomes unstable. `ps ax` shows a process with name '[mkisofs]' and
state alternating between DW and RW, but nothing can be done with it.

Best wishes from Riley.

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 * All rights and wrongs reserved.

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