@grpc/grpc-js: Closing Stream After Unary Call Triggers Double Free

[moloch--]

Problem description

Attempting to close the client's connections to a server after making a single unary call triggers a panic in Node (this may actually be a bug in Node, it's not clear to me).

Reproduction steps

I have a client class that manages a couple gRPC streams (_events and _tunnelStream) that are open for the lifetime of the client class. The client also makes unary calls. After making any number of unary calls (1 or more), and attempting to disconnect with the function below triggers a double free what appears to be the NodeJS HTTP/2 library:

  async disconnect(): Promise<void> {
    if (this._events !== null) {
      this._events.on('error', () => {})
      this._events.cancel()
    }
    if (this._tunnelStream !== null) {
      this._tunnelStream.on('error', () => {})
      this._tunnelStream.cancel()
    }
    this.rpc.close()
  }

Environment

• MacOS / Ubuntu 20.04
• Node version 14
• Package name and version @grpc/grpc-js ^1.0.3

Screenshots

[murgatroid99]

That is definitely a bug in Node itself. You have more information about how you triggered the bug and your environment, so you should file an issue in that repository (https://github.com/nodejs/node), and link to it from here. I suggest that when you do, you share the error information in the form of text so that it's easier to interact with.

[sangaman]

Is there any update on this? I think I've encountered the same issue, still trying to figure out how to deal with it.

[LePremierHomme]

Wrapping the .cancel() call with setTimeout/setImmediate seems to mitigate the error.

[mdouglass]

@murgatroid99 built a small repro case for this issue and opened a ticket against https://github.com/nodejs/node as suggested.

[bl-ue]

nodejs/node#38964. I'll investigate it.
As long as you guys aren't using any C/C++ modules, it's definitely a bug in Node.

[murgatroid99]

grpc-js definitely doesn't use any C/C++ modules. Avoiding them was the main reason the library was created.

[bl-ue]

Great, okay, it like it's definitely a bug in node core. Track nodejs/node#38964 for updates :)

[bl-ue]

Linking for reference 🎉 nodejs/node#39076 — thank you @mdouglass!!