# syzbot

`syzbot` system continuously fuzzes main Linux kernel branches and automatically
reports all found bugs. Direct all questions to `syzkaller@googlegroups.com`.
All `syzbot`-reported bugs are collected [here](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/syzkaller-bugs).

## Bug status tracking

`syzbot` needs to know when a bug is fixed in order to (1) verify that it is
in fact fixed and (2) be able to report other similarly-looking crashes
(while a bug is considered open all similarly-looking crashes are merged into
the existing bug). To understand when a bug is fixed `syzbot` needs to know
what commit fixes the bug; once `syzbot` knows the commit it will track when
the commit reaches all kernel builds on all tracked branches. Only when the
commit reaches all builds, the bug is considered closed (new similarly-looking
crashes create a new bug).

## Communication with syzbot

If you fix a bug reported by `syzbot`, please add the provided `Reported-by`
tag to the commit. You can also communicate with `syzbot` by replying to its
emails. The commands are:

- to attach a fixing commit to the bug (if you forgot to add `Reported-by` tag):
```
#syz fix: exact-commit-title
````
It's enough that the commit is merged into any tree, in particular,
you don't need to wait for the commit to be merged into upstream tree.
`syzbot` only needs to know the title by which it will appear in tested trees.
In case of an error or a title change, you can override the commit simply
by sending another `#syz fix` command.
- to test a patch for a bug *with reproducer*:
```
#syz test: git://repo/address.git branch
```
and provide the patch inline or as a text attachment. Attachments are more
reliable because of email clients splitting lines and messing with whitespaces.
`syzbot` will test the patch on `HEAD` of the specified git repo/branch.
Note: this can be used both for testing fix patches and just for debugging
(i.e. adding additional checks to code and testing with them).
Note: you may send the request only to `syzbot` email address, as patches sent
to some mailing lists (e.g. netdev, netfilter-devel) will trigger patchwork.
After sending an email you should get a reply email with results within an hour.
- to mark the bug as a duplicate of another `syzbot` bug:
```
#syz dup: exact-subject-of-another-report
```
- to mark the bug as a one-off invalid report (e.g. induced by a previous memory corruption):
```
#syz invalid
```
**Note**: if the crash happens again, it will cause creation of a new bug report.

**Note**: all commands must start from beginning of the line.

**Note**: please keep `syzkaller-bugs@googlegroups.com` mailing list in CC.
It serves as a history of what happened with each bug report.

## syzkaller reproducers

`syzbot` aims at providing stand-alone C reproducers for all reported bugs.
However, sometimes it can't extract a reproducer at all, or can only extract a
syzkaller reproducer. syzkaller reproducers are programs in a special syzkaller
notation and they can be executed on the target system with a little bit more
effort. See [this](https://github.com/google/syzkaller/blob/master/docs/executing_syzkaller_programs.md)
for instructions.

A syskaller program can also give you an idea as to what syscalls with what
arguments were executed (note that some calls can actually be executed in
parallel).

A syzkaller program can be converted to an almost equivalent C source using `syz-prog2c` utility. `syz-prog2c` has lots of flags in common with [syz-execprog](https://github.com/google/syzkaller/blob/master/docs/executing_syzkaller_programs.md), e.g. `-threaded`/`-collide` which control if the syscalls are executed sequentially or in parallel. An example invocation:

```
syz-prog2c -prog repro.syz.txt -threaded -collide -repeat -procs=8 -sandbox=namespace -tun -tmpdir -waitrepeat
```

However, note that if `syzbot` did not provide a C reproducer, it wasn't able to trigger the bug using the C program (though, it can be just because the bug is triggered by a subtle race condition).

## Crash does not reproduce?

If the provided reproducer does not work for you, most likely it is related to the
fact that you have slightly different setup than `syzbot`. `syzbot` has obtained
the provided crash report on the provided reproducer on a freshly-booted
machine, so the reproducer worked for it somehow.

`syzbot` uses GCE VMs for testing, but *usually* it is not important.

If the reproducer exits quickly, try to run it several times, or in a loop.
There can be some races involved.

Exact compiler used by `syzbot` can be found [here](https://storage.googleapis.com/syzkaller/gcc-7.tar.gz) (245MB).

A qemu-suitable Debian/wheezy image can be found [here](https://storage.googleapis.com/syzkaller/wheezy.img) (1GB, compression somehow breaks it), root ssh key for it is [here](https://storage.googleapis.com/syzkaller/wheezy.img.key).

## No reproducer at all?

Reproducers are best-effort. `syzbot` always tries to create reproducers, and
once it has one it adds it to the bug. If there is no reproducer referenced in a
bug, a reproducer does not exist. There are multiple reasons why `syzbot` can
fail to create a reproducer: some crashes are caused by subtle races and are
very hard to reproduce in general; some crashes are caused by global accumulated
state in kernel (e.g. lockdep reports); some crashes are caused by
non-reproducible coincidences (e.g. an integer `0x12345` happened to reference an
existing IPC object) and there is long tail of other reasons.

## Is syzbot code available?

Yes, it is [here](https://github.com/google/syzkaller/tree/master/dashboard/app).