# Mongrel Web Server 0.3.12.1 -- Iron Mongrel **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [April 4, 2006, 8:15am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mongrel-web-server-0-3-12-1-iron-mongrel/56797 "2006-04-04T08:15:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/da6949/32.png) [@Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zed_S)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 8:15am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mongrel-web-server-0-3-12-1-iron-mongrel/56797/1 "2006-04-04T08:15:50Z")
Hello All Mongrel Users, For the unintiated, Mongrel is a web server that runs Ruby web applications really fast. Read [http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/](http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/) to get find out more about it. This is the Iron Mongrel release. It is the result of trying to trash Mongrel until it can’t move and then fixing anything that comes up. The work was done on EastMedia’s and VeriSign’s upcoming project in order to make sure it can handle heavy loads and potentially malformed requests. The project is a security and identity project so having a web server that is able to block bad requests is very important. The testing methods used were (are): 1. Unit testing what I can. Mongrel is a server so many tests have to be done “live”. 2. Thrashing Mongrel’s HTTP parser internally with random or near-random data (called fuzzing). 3. Using “Peach Fuzz”:[http://peachfuzz.sourceforge.net/](http://peachfuzz.sourceforge.net/) to thrash several live apps with randomness. 4. Running several extensive little scripts to explore the edges of death for Mongrel. 5. Heavy code audits covering as much code as possible to find any possible loose ends. The end result is a lot of little fixes which make Mongrel more robust against badly behaving clients and possibly against many potential security risks in the future. In general Mongrel 0.3.12.1 behaves more consistently compared to past releases when given random data or maliciously formatted data. The main changes are related to how IO is processed and how the HTTP parser rejects “bad” input. What the parser now blocks is: - Any header over 112k. - Any query string over 10k. - Any header field value over 80k. - Any header field name over 256 bytes. - Any request URI (the file part, not the whole thing) greater than 512 bytes. As soon as these conditions are detected the client is disconnected immediately and a log message is printed out listing the IP address, the exact cause, and the data that caused it. I’ll remove the data dump later, but I want people to shoot me valid requests that cause parser errors. That’s not all though. I’ve started a “security”:security.html page where I’ll publish the results of security threats, tests, and improvements as well as any advice for folks. This release also features a few little features here and there: - Initial support for a “config script”. I’ll be documenting this more, but it basically lets you use the Mongrel::RailsConfigurator to augment your application’s config via a small script. Just pass “-S config/mongrel.rb” and put any Mongrel::RailsConfigurator statements that are reasonable. - Mongrel will report the correct REMOTE\_ADDR variable, but it does a little trick where if there is an X-FORWARDED-FOR header then it sets REMOTE\_ADDR to that. - Fixes for little bugs like double log messages, but not a lot of changes to the overall core. Go ahead and install the usual way: gem install mongrel _or_ gem upgrade Zed A. Shaw > **[Zed A. shaw](https://zedshaw.com/)** > > Personal essays and writings by Zed A. Shaw. [http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/](http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/) P.S. The snazzy Iron Mongrel logo is courtesy court3nay from > **[Start - Caboo](http://caboo.se/)** ---
**Author:** ![Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/da6949/32.png) [@Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zed_S)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 1:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mongrel-web-server-0-3-12-1-iron-mongrel/56797/2 "2006-04-04T13:04:18Z")
On Apr 4, 2006, at 8:12 AM, Zed S. wrote: > up. The > work was done on EastMedia’s and VeriSign’s upcoming project in > order to > make sure it can handle heavy loads and potentially malformed > requests. The > project is a security and identity project so having a web server > that is > able to block bad requests is very important. One of my applications is behaving oddly when doing file uploads with this release of Mongrel… The form is: ... dumping the params hash while running the application with Webrick, I get: — !map:HashWithIndifferentAccess commit: Load blueprint: !map:HashWithIndifferentAccess name: Test content: !ruby/object:StringIO {} group: “1” action: upload controller: home while with Mongrel I get this: — !map:HashWithIndifferentAccess " filename": |- “untitled.txt” Content-Type: text/plain test -----------------------------6918292731098126453736833253 Content-Disposition: form-data “-----------------------------6918292731098126453736833253\r\n Content-Disposition: form-data”: “” " name": ““blueprint[content]”” action: upload controller: home This happens on my dev machine, running MacOS X; the same application is currently running fine under Mongrel 0.3.11 on a FreeBSD server. – Stefano C. removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid ---
**Author:** ![Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/da6949/32.png) [@Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zed_S)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 3:44pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mongrel-web-server-0-3-12-1-iron-mongrel/56797/3 "2006-04-04T15:44:57Z")
On 4/4/06 7:02 AM, “Stefano C.” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > One of my applications is behaving oddly when doing file uploads with > this release of Mongrel… Can you run your application with the -B option? Run through, and then take the log/mongrel\_debug/rails.log file and send it to me (off list) or paste it to a nopaste site so I can take a look. Also look at your log/mongrel.log and log/development.log files for other possible clues. Finally, can you tell me more specifically what “behaving oddly” is? > This happens on my dev machine, running MacOS X; the same application > is currently > running fine under Mongrel 0.3.11 on a FreeBSD server. Zed A. Shaw > **[Zed A. shaw](https://zedshaw.com/)** > > Personal essays and writings by Zed A. Shaw. [http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/](http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/) ---
**Author:** ![Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/da6949/32.png) [@Zed\_S](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Zed_S)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 5:48pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/mongrel-web-server-0-3-12-1-iron-mongrel/56797/4 "2006-04-04T17:48:31Z")
> One of my applications is behaving oddly when doing file uploads with > this release of Mongrel… I also have problems with Mongrel 0.13.1 and file\_column / file uploads. Everything works fine with older versions of Mongrel. I’ll have more details later for you Zed, I’m not in the office anymore. Jonathan