Files
finit/doc
Joachim Wiberg 3231ade38a dbus: fixes from a code review of the branch
A pass over the whole branch before merge, mostly in libink since
that is the new code and the part exposed to the wire.  Grouped here
rather than scattered so the review is easy to read in one place.

libink parser and dispatch:

 - Bound reader lengths so a 32-bit size_t can't wrap a wire length
   past the guard and read out of bounds.  Reachable pre-auth on any
   bus, so it matters on the 32-bit targets Finit runs on.
 - Drop a peer when a reply send fails instead of limping on with a
   half-written frame; a built-in whose send failed used to fall
   through and put a second frame on the wire.

initctl:

 - Copy a D-Bus error name out of the reply before closing the client;
   the reply points into memory the close frees.  Both error paths now
   share one helper so this can't creep back.

Authorization:

 - Take the caller's groups from the kernel (SO_PEERCRED plus
   SO_PEERGROUPS) rather than getpwuid()/getgrouplist(), which go
   through NSS and can block PID 1 on a slow LDAP or SSSD backend.
   The check is now a lookup against the group resolved once at init,
   with no NSS and no 256 KiB array on the stack.  A caller reaching
   us through a broker carries no group set, so system-bus privileged
   methods are root-only; the local bus keeps group support.  See
   libink/README.md for the note on lifting that.

Shutdown:

 - Call dbus_exit() from the shutdown path so the server, its peers,
   and the socket are let go cleanly.  The teardown existed but nobody
   called it.

Tests, CI, docs:

 - A fuzz target for the message parser, run as a quick sweep in the
   suite and properly under libFuzzer in CI, with the corpus carried
   between runs.  The -as-uid tests drop groups the way a login does
   so SO_PEERGROUPS sees the right set, and widen the test socket to
   reach the per-method check behind the 0660 gate.  Bring the GitHub
   actions up to versions that run on Node 24, and tidy a few small
   things a /simplify pass turned up.

Signed-off-by: Joachim Wiberg <troglobit@gmail.com>
2026-08-16 08:57:38 +02:00
..
2025-07-10 16:45:48 +02:00
2025-08-29 12:54:06 +02:00
2026-08-01 11:25:39 +02:00
…

Introduction

Alpine screenshot{ align=right width=40% }

Reverse engineered from the EeePC fastinit
"gaps filled with frog DNA …"
— Claudio Matsuoka

Finit is a process starter and supervisor designed to run as PID 1 on Linux systems. It consists of a set of plugins and can be set up using configuration files. Plugins start at hook points and can run various set up tasks and/or install event handlers that later provide runtime services, e.g., PID file monitoring, or conditions.

Features

For a more thorough overview, see the Features section.

Tip

See SysV Init Compatibility for help to quickly get going with an existing SysV or BusyBox init setup.

Origin

This project is based on the original finit by Claudio Matsuoka which was reverse engineered from syscalls of the EeePC fastinit.

Finit is developed and maintained by Joachim Wiberg at GitHub. Please file bug reports, clone it, or send pull requests for bug fixes and proposed extensions.