Attempting to block a locked/hidden user causes Fatal TypeError from DatabaseBlock::equals()
Closed, ResolvedPublicPRODUCTION ERROR
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Description

Hello,

I got the following exception:

[ecd6466c-929a-4f51-a1c4-f3fb65e75675] 2020-07-30 05:10:41: Fatal exception of type "TypeError"

I was trying to locally suppress block a user, who was already globally locked and hidden. I knew they were glocked, but not that they were hidden, the user interface in this area is not terribly clear or consistent. If this is intended to throw an error, that's fine, but it should throw a real error explaining the situation and not an exception.

Error

error

Fatal TypeError:  Argument 1 passed to MediaWiki\Block\DatabaseBlock::equals() must be an instance of MediaWiki\Block\DatabaseBlock, null given

trace

#0 /srv/mediawiki/php-1.36.0-wmf.1/includes/specials/SpecialBlock.php(969): MediaWiki\Block\DatabaseBlock->equals(NULL)
#1 /srv/mediawiki/php-1.36.0-wmf.1/includes/specials/SpecialBlock.php(1235): SpecialBlock::processForm(array, RequestContext)
#2 /srv/mediawiki/php-1.36.0-wmf.1/includes/htmlform/HTMLForm.php(707): SpecialBlock->onSubmit(array, OOUIHTMLForm)
#3 /srv/mediawiki/php-1.36.0-wmf.1/includes/htmlform/HTMLForm.php(597): HTMLForm->trySubmit()
#4 /srv/mediawiki/php-1.36.0-wmf.1/includes/htmlform/HTMLForm.php(613): HTMLForm->tryAuthorizedSubmit()
#5 /srv/mediawiki/php-1.36.0-wmf.1/includes/specialpage/FormSpecialPage.php(187): HTMLForm->show()
#6 /srv/mediawiki/php-1.36.0-wmf.1/includes/specialpage/SpecialPage.php(600): FormSpecialPage->execute(string)
#7 /srv/mediawiki/php-1.36.0-wmf.1/includes/specialpage/SpecialPageFactory.php(635): SpecialPage->run(string)
#8 /srv/mediawiki/php-1.36.0-wmf.1/includes/MediaWiki.php(307): MediaWiki\SpecialPage\SpecialPageFactory->executePath(Title, RequestContext)
#9 /srv/mediawiki/php-1.36.0-wmf.1/includes/MediaWiki.php(940): MediaWiki->performRequest()
#10 /srv/mediawiki/php-1.36.0-wmf.1/includes/MediaWiki.php(543): MediaWiki->main()
#11 /srv/mediawiki/php-1.36.0-wmf.1/index.php(53): MediaWiki->run()
#12 /srv/mediawiki/php-1.36.0-wmf.1/index.php(46): wfIndexMain()
#13 /srv/mediawiki/w/index.php(3): require(string)
#14 {main}
`

Details

Request ID: ecd6466c-929a-4f51-a1c4-f3fb65e75675
Request URL: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:Block/Username

Subject	Repo	Branch	Lines +/-
SpecialBlock: Make error more generic if block not inserted/found	mediawiki/core	REL1_35	+4 -1
SpecialBlock: Make error more generic if block not inserted/found	mediawiki/core	master	+4 -1
SpecialBlock: Show error if a block could not be inserted or found	mediawiki/core	REL1_35	+6 -1
SpecialBlock: Show error if a block could not be inserted or found	mediawiki/core	master	+6 -1

Customize query in gerrit

Related Objects

Mentioned In: T260455: Suppressed username included in the Wiki Replicas
Mentioned Here: rMW3e92cf9cde39: maintenance: Print version of MediaWiki on the command prompt
rMW9aac9cba9e91: Merge "search: Fix PrefixSearch totally ignoring input like "[[Foo]]""
T260485: CentralAuth uses wrong actor ID when locally suppressing the user (CVE-2020-25869)

Event Timeline

ST47 created this task.Jul 30 2020, 5:14 AM

Restricted Application added a subscriber: Aklapper. · View Herald TranscriptJul 30 2020, 5:14 AM

Ammarpad added a project: Wikimedia-production-error.Jul 30 2020, 5:22 AM

JJMC89 changed the subtype of this task from "Task" to "Production Error".Jul 30 2020, 5:50 AM

DannyS712 subscribed.Jul 30 2020, 7:26 AM

Aklapper renamed this task from Attempting to block a user that is already locked and hidden causes an exception to Attempting to block a user already locked and hidden causes exception: Argument 1 passed to MediaWiki\Block\DatabaseBlock::equals() must be an instance of MediaWiki\Block\DatabaseBlock, null given, called in includes/specials/SpecialBlock.php:969.Jul 30 2020, 8:08 AM

Aklapper set Request URL to https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:Block/Username.

Aklapper set Request ID to ecd6466c-929a-4f51-a1c4-f3fb65e75675.

Aklapper edited Stack Trace. (Show Details)

Aklapper set Phatality ID to fb8436701e5fed81958460aeb2ae8eaf89ffb540c5be4c99df3ae34d62f69d77.

Looks to me like a one-off failure (though can handling can still be imporoved). Or are you able to reproduce it deterministically @ST47?

I can reliably reproduce it, it does not seem to be intermittent or one-off.

[d612231b-0f01-4ad0-8a5d-6d3f8fcd2690] 2020-08-04 06:54:29: Fatal exception of type "TypeError"

[ccf90188-6d78-4926-8718-9e4bc8c61f99] 2020-08-04 06:55:26: Fatal exception of type "TypeError"

OK thanks. I guess the issue is rare because it's not common that we want locally block a globally locked and hidden user. But still this needs to be handled garcefully.

The problem comes from assuming in SpecialBlock that DatabaseBlock::newFromTarget always retrieves a block if a block against that target couldn't be inserted: https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/plugins/gitiles/mediawiki/core/+/ecced5cc1bfab4d41c62b8c6062935742b28a974/includes/specials/SpecialBlock.php#969

We should check that $currentBlock is a block before passing it to equals. If it is not, we should display an error message... The question is what this should say.

I can't reproduce this locally by trying to locally suppress a user who is globally blocked and hidden, so I'm not sure if it's specific to that case.

@ST47 Was the existing block new at the time? It could be that the block existed on the primary database, but did not yet exist on the replicas, in which case the insert would not be possible, but no block would be retrieved either.

Change 619436 had a related patch set uploaded (by Tchanders; owner: Tchanders):
[mediawiki/core@master] SpecialBlock: Show error if a block could not be inserted or found

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/619436

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Aug 11 2020, 7:32 AM

@Tchanders The first time, yes, but when I re-tested it on august 4th, I used the same account as when I originally reported the bug. So it would have been blocked for several days at that point.

Is it possible that the account was already blocked, but because the block log was suppressed, DatabaseBlock::newFromTarget( $target ) fails to return it?

Change 619436 merged by jenkins-bot:
[mediawiki/core@master] SpecialBlock: Show error if a block could not be inserted or found

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/619436

DannyS712 removed a project: Patch-For-Review.Aug 12 2020, 11:02 AM

Ammarpad unsubscribed.Aug 12 2020, 11:02 AM

ReleaseTaggerBot added a project: MW-1.36-notes (1.36.0-wmf.5; 2020-08-18).Aug 12 2020, 12:00 PM

Change 620034 had a related patch set uploaded (by Reedy; owner: Tchanders):
[mediawiki/core@REL1_35] SpecialBlock: Show error if a block could not be inserted or found

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/620034

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Aug 14 2020, 1:58 AM

Change 620034 merged by jenkins-bot:
[mediawiki/core@REL1_35] SpecialBlock: Show error if a block could not be inserted or found

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/620034

Maintenance_bot removed a project: Patch-For-Review.Aug 14 2020, 2:10 AM

ReleaseTaggerBot added a project: MW-1.35-notes.Aug 14 2020, 3:00 AM

@ST47 Thanks for the additional info. The log suppression shouldn't make a difference (it was also suppressed in my local test).

Another possibility is that there is no existing block, but that the block insert is failing for another reason. Does the block definitely exist?

The patch above fixes the error, but the message displayed to the user assumes that the error is caused by databases being out of sync. Until we can work out where the problem arose from in @ST47's case, this isn't entirely resolved.

@Tchanders I guess I don't know. On the contributions page, there are links to "change block" or "unblock" (rather than "block"). However, there is no block log that I can see. The username is hidden for good reason, but the user ID (on enwiki, at least) is 39840215.

JJMC89 mentioned this in T260455: Suppressed username included in the Wiki Replicas.Aug 14 2020, 7:08 PM

MarcoAurelio subscribed.Aug 15 2020, 9:18 PM

I think the core cause of this is T260485.

Tks4Fish subscribed.Aug 15 2020, 10:33 PM

In T259212#6386998, @Urbanecm wrote:

I think the core cause of this is T260485.

I agree - in this case, the block exists but can't be loaded properly because of T260485: CentralAuth uses wrong actor ID when locally suppressing the user (CVE-2020-25869).

Does this error always come from T260485?

According to logstash the error has been encountered on a few wikis, since May 2020. Most of those wikis have blocks with the wrong actor ID (examples in T260485#6389423).

However, hewiktionary threw this error but has no blocks like this. It's perhaps unlikely that there was a block that was since deleted, since these blocks can't be deleted via the UI.

This might mean that the error can be encountered in situations other than T260485.

What should we do?

So far, we've merged a patch that:

Stops an error being thrown
Shows an error message to the user, saying the databases may be out of sync

Now we know more, I think we should:

Log a warning to logstash
Change the error message to say that the block could not be inserted, but an existing block could not be loaded. I'm not sure what the call to action should be though...

The call to action should be "create a task at Phabricator", because no one but sysadmins can fix this issue, I'm afraid. I agree with your proposal.

taavi subscribed.Aug 17 2020, 4:45 PM

Change 620747 had a related patch set uploaded (by Tchanders; owner: Tchanders):
[mediawiki/core@master] SpecialBlock: Make error more generic if block not inserted/found

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/620747

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Aug 17 2020, 5:20 PM

• Niharika added a project: Anti-Harassment.Aug 19 2020, 4:59 AM

• Niharika moved this task from Untriaged to Triage/To be Estimated on the Anti-Harassment board.

ARamirez_WMF moved this task from Triage/To be Estimated to The Letter Song on the Anti-Harassment board.Aug 19 2020, 4:27 PM

ARamirez_WMF edited projects, added Anti-Harassment (The Letter Song); removed Anti-Harassment.

ARamirez_WMF moved this task from Ready 🎬 (ONLY IF YOU HAVE NO MORE CODE TO REVIEW) to Needs Design/Product 🎨 on the Anti-Harassment (The Letter Song) board.

ARamirez_WMF moved this task from Needs Design/Product 🎨 to Code Review 🔍 on the Anti-Harassment (The Letter Song) board.

Tchanders claimed this task.Aug 19 2020, 5:24 PM

dbarratt moved this task from Code Review 🔍 to QA/Testing 🐞 on the Anti-Harassment (The Letter Song) board.Aug 20 2020, 1:30 AM

Change 620747 merged by jenkins-bot:
[mediawiki/core@master] SpecialBlock: Make error more generic if block not inserted/found

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/620747

ReleaseTaggerBot edited projects, added MW-1.36-notes (1.36.0-wmf.6; 2020-08-25); removed MW-1.36-notes (1.36.0-wmf.5; 2020-08-18).Aug 20 2020, 12:00 PM

Maintenance_bot removed a project: Patch-For-Review.Aug 20 2020, 12:10 PM

Change 621505 had a related patch set uploaded (by Reedy; owner: Tchanders):
[mediawiki/core@REL1_35] SpecialBlock: Make error more generic if block not inserted/found

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/621505

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Aug 21 2020, 2:42 PM

Change 621505 merged by jenkins-bot:
[mediawiki/core@REL1_35] SpecialBlock: Make error more generic if block not inserted/found

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/621505

Maintenance_bot removed a project: Patch-For-Review.Aug 21 2020, 4:10 PM

I cannot reproduce the bug on beta (MediaWiki 1.36.0-alpha (9aac9cb) 10:09, 24 August 2020) using the below steps:

Went to https://en.wikipedia.beta.wmflabs.org/w/index.php?title=Special:CentralAuth&target=Drwpr and set status to "Account is hidden completely"
Went to https://en.wikivoyage.beta.wmflabs.org/wiki/Special:BlockList and checked that the block is not listed (i.e. it has an incorrect ipb_by_actor and so cannot be loaded)
Went to https://en.wikivoyage.beta.wmflabs.org/wiki/Special:Block and attempted to hide/suppress Drwpr

After checking the Confirm box, the form returns the validation message: The block could not be made, but no existing block was found for "Drwpr". If this problem persists, please report it. (with the "report it" link going to https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help_talk:Blocking_users)

On my local vagrant (MediaWiki 1.36.0-alpha (3e92cf9)), I attempted to reproduce with a few different types of blocks. I didn't see any exceptions on the page or in the logs. The Special:Block form always returned a reasonable error.

I also tried to reproduce with API:Block, which returned: ipb-block-not-found: The block could not be made, but no existing block was found for "$user". If this problem persists, please [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Help_talk:Blocking_users report it].

I also confirmed that when the new error appears the logs record: [BlockManager] Block could not be inserted. No existing block was found.

Krinkle moved this task from Untriaged to Aug 2020 on the Wikimedia-production-error board.Aug 26 2020, 7:03 PM

Krinkle renamed this task from Attempting to block a user already locked and hidden causes exception: Argument 1 passed to MediaWiki\Block\DatabaseBlock::equals() must be an instance of MediaWiki\Block\DatabaseBlock, null given, called in includes/specials/SpecialBlock.php:969 to Attempting to block a locked/hidden user causes Fatal TypeError from DatabaseBlock::equals().Sep 22 2020, 1:03 AM

Krinkle updated the task description. (Show Details)

Krinkle edited Stack Trace. (Show Details)

• Niharika closed this task as Resolved.Oct 2 2020, 7:42 PM

Attempting to block a locked/hidden user causes Fatal TypeError from DatabaseBlock::equals()Closed, ResolvedPublicPRODUCTION ERRORActions