[syslog-ng] [Bug 110] New: Advancing the system date and time beyond 2038 causes flood of messages

[bugzilla at bugzilla.balabit.com]

https://bugzilla.balabit.com/show_bug.cgi?id=110

           Summary: Advancing the system date and time beyond 2038 causes
                    flood of messages
           Product: syslog-ng
           Version: 2.0.x
          Platform: PC
        OS/Version: Linux
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: unspecified
         Component: syslog-ng
        AssignedTo: bazsi at balabit.hu
        ReportedBy: gaudet at verizon.net
Type of the Report: bug
   Estimated Hours: 0.0


On a 64-bit Linux system (SLES 11 SP1), if the date and time are advanced beyond January 19, 2038 @ 03:14:07, syslog begins flooding the log with MARK
messages.
It is possible that this is due to the so-called Year 2038 or Unix Millenium bug (see http://www.deepsky.com/~merovech/2038.html).

The test:
- Set the syslog mark frequency to 2 seconds and restart the syslog service
- Tail the log
- From another window, set the date to January 19, 2038 @ 03:14:00
- Observe the mark messages are correct until the clock moves beyond 03:14:07

# Display the starting date/time plus seconds since epoch
$ date ; date +%s
Tue Jan 25 02:10:00 UTC 2011
1295921228

# Set the date and time to January 19, 2038 @ 03:14:00
$ date 011903142038
Tue Jan 19 03:14:00 UTC 2038

# Display the new date/time and note that seconds since epoch have advanced beyond the 32-bit unsigned integer maximum
$ date ; date +%s
Tue Jan 19 03:14:10 UTC 2038
2147483650

$ tail -f /var/log/messages
Jan 25 02:10:00 localhost -- MARK --
Jan 25 02:10:02 localhost -- MARK --
Jan 25 02:10:04 localhost -- MARK --
Jan 25 02:10:06 localhost -- MARK --
Jan 25 02:10:08 localhost -- MARK --
Jan 25 02:10:10 localhost -- MARK --
Jan 25 02:10:12 localhost -- MARK --
Jan 25 02:10:14 localhost -- MARK --
Jan 25 02:10:16 localhost -- MARK --
Jan 25 02:10:18 localhost -- MARK --
Jan 25 02:10:20 localhost -- MARK --
Jan 19 03:14:00 localhost -- MARK --
Jan 19 03:14:00 localhost syslog-ng[4961]: Log statistics; dropped='pipe(/dev/xconsole)=0', dropped='pipe(/dev/tty10)=0', processed='center(queued)=71',
processed='center(received)=65', processed='destination(messages)=65', processed='destination(mailinfo)=0', processed='destination(mailwarn)=0',
processed='destination(localmessages)=0', processed='destination(newserr)=0', processed='destination(mailerr)=0', processed='destination(netmgm)=0',
processed='destination(warn)=2', processed='destination(console)=2', processed='destination(null)=0', processed='destination(mail)=0',
processed='destination(xconsole)=2', processed='destination(firewall)=0', processed='destination(acpid)=0', processed='destination(newscrit)=0',
processed='destination(newsnotice)=0', processed='source(src)=65'
Jan 19 03:14:02 localhost -- MARK --
Jan 19 03:14:04 localhost -- MARK --
Jan 19 03:14:06 localhost -- MARK --
Jan 19 03:14:06 localhost -- MARK --
Jan 19 03:14:06 localhost -- MARK --
Jan 19 03:14:06 localhost -- MARK --
Jan 19 03:14:06 localhost -- MARK --
Jan 19 03:14:06 localhost -- MARK --
Jan 19 03:14:06 localhost -- MARK --
Jan 19 03:14:06 localhost -- MARK --
Jan 19 03:14:06 localhost -- MARK --
Jan 19 03:14:06 localhost -- MARK --
Jan 19 03:14:06 localhost -- MARK --
Jan 19 03:14:06 localhost -- MARK --
Jan 19 03:14:06 localhost -- MARK --

In a very short period of time, there are thousands of the "Jan 19 03:14:06..." messages in the log.


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