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Problem: AuRa's unsafeties around step duration #7282

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merged 1 commit into from
Dec 21, 2017

Commits on Dec 19, 2017

  1. Problem: AuRa's unsafeties around step duration

    Firstly, `Step.duration_remaining` casts it to u32, unnecesarily
    limiting it to 2^32. While theoretically this is "good enough" (at 3
    seconds steps it provides room for a little over 400 years), it is
    still a lossy way to calculate the remaining time until the next step.
    
    Secondly, step duration might be zero, triggering division by zero
    in `Step.calibrate`
    
    Solution: rework the code around the fact that duration is
    typically in single digits and never grows, hence, it can be represented
    by a much narrower range (u16) and this highlights the fact that
    multiplying u64 by u16 will only result in an overflow in even further
    future, at which point we should panic informatively (if anybody's
    still around)
    
    Similarly, panic when it is detected that incrementing the step
    counter wrapped around on the overflow of usize.
    
    As for the division by zero, prevent it by making zero an invalid
    value for step duration. This will make AuRa log the constraint
    mismatch and panic (after all, what purpose would zero step duration
    serve? it makes no sense within the definition of the protocol,
    as finality can only be achieved as per the specification
    if messages are received within the step duration, which would violate
    the speed of light and other physical laws in this case).
    yrashk committed Dec 19, 2017
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