> From: hermes.belusca@sfr.fr
> To: ros-dev@reactos.org
> Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2013 12:47:48 +0200
> Subject: [ros-dev] Future merge of the ros-csrss
branch into the trunk
>
> Hi all !
>
> I'm writing this mail to announce to you that in
one week (if everything
> works as expected till this time) I will be ready
to merge my ros-csrss
> branch into our current codebase.
>
> The ros-csrss branch
> (http://svn.reactos.org/svn/reactos/branches/ros-csrss/?view=log)
was
> started 5 months ago (October 14, 2012 to be
precise) with a three-fold
> purpose:
>
> - Use the new Windows-compatible Client-Server
Runtime Subsystem (csrss +
> csrsrv) written by Alex Ionescu, unused at the
moment and which currently
> lives in trunk/reactos/subsystems/csr/, and as such
was a replacement for
> the older one in
trunk/reactos/subsystems/win32/csrss/. This last one was
> progressively hacked to include functionalities
from the new csrss; however
> most of the old code remained and as such it was a
big hack. Also the CSR
> client part, residing in ntdll, was updated (thanks
to comments put by Alex
> inside it). To communicate between the server-part
and the client-part, some
> messaging protocol is used (thanks to LPC); the
used structures were not so
> up-to-date, but the new ones were in the code, not
used. So I could use them
> instead of the older ones. That meant that some
work was needed in ntdll (as
> previously stated). Disregarding the details (you
can see them in the commit
> log), I also had to rework a little bit on the dlls
which communicate with
> CSR, namely kernel32.
>
> - Replacing our very old win32csr.dll csr server by
the collection basesrv /
> winsrv as it is done under Windows. For that I
tried to match accurately our
> existing code with what should exist on Windows
according to this list of
> CSR servers APIs : http://j00ru.vexillium.org/csrss_list/api_list.html
.
>
> - Since the console subsystem is (for historical
purposes on Windows) the
> only subsystem which exploits all the possibilities
of the CSR, much of the
> work in the branch was done to make it working with
the new csrss. Even if
> on Windows it is included together with other APIs
inside the winsrv dll
> (since Windows NT 3.1 release), I decided to put it
in a separate dll,
> called consrv, on ReactOS (I took the name from the
dll where it was
> included in Windows NT 3.1 beta from October 1991).
Also, because I believe
> that the console subsystem is something that, on
Windows, was somewhat
> neglected (no ANSI control, (almost?)no TTY-like
flavour...) I decided to
> work on its internal architecture (the exterior one
being unchanged for
> compatibility reasons) such as to exacerbate the
following things:
> * the "console server" which dialogs with the
console applications,
> and which maintains a list of all the created
consoles.
> * different "front-ends" corresponding to where you
want to output
> the information (~= console hardware) (it is of
course work-in-progress). At
> the moment only one is working: the GUI console. I
have to make the TUI
> interfacing correctly with the rest of the code
(but since it's not used for
> now, it's not extremely urgent). The idea would be
to have also a front-end
> for serial ports, so that we could interact with
the serial port (with Putty
> if running ROS on a virtual machine, or with a
serial console, etc...). And
> another idea would be to make those front-ends
dynamically-loadable (instead
> of being compiled inside consrv).
> - I also fixed some parts of the console properties
dialog box.
>
>
> Here is the JIRA report for the merge:
> http://jira.reactos.org/browse/CORE-7002
> Here are the test results with revision 58723 (plus
comparison with
> revisions 58722 and 58720):
> http://old.reactos.org/testman/compare.php?ids=16213,16218,16219,16221
> You will see that the ntdll:exception seems to run
24 more tests, but 4
> failed compared to non-patched r58723. The errors
are "exception.c:821: Test
> failed: Eip at 0x77f2b2a3 instead of 0079000B". It
would be interesting to
> investigate further on these failings.
> Also, gdi32:font executes 33 more tests, and 10
more fail, due to the
> Fixedsys font.
> A problem, already existing in trunk, remains:
> http://jira.reactos.org/browse/CORE-6397
(see description inside).
>
> You are encouraged to make comments, etc... etc...
>
> Cheers,
> Hermès.
>
>
>
~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=
> ~=~=
>
> Documentation I've used :
> =========================
>
> - The oldest trace of CSRSS in NT 3.1 beta (where
I've found the existence
> of csrsrv.dll, which was merged with winsrv.dll in
the 3.1 release and the
> subsequent versions of NT): http://www.logotypes.se/NT310CSRSS.txt
>
> - "Windows CSRSS cross-version API Table" http://j00ru.vexillium.org/?p=349
> and the subsequent links.
> - "Windows CSRSS Write Up: the basics (part 1/1)"
> http://j00ru.vexillium.org/?p=492
> - "Windows CSRSS Write Up: Inter-process
Communication (part 1/3)"
> http://j00ru.vexillium.org/?p=502
> - "Windows CSRSS Write Up: Inter-process
Communication (part 2/3)"
> http://j00ru.vexillium.org/?p=527
(the messaging system CSR server <-->
> client is explained here)
> (the part 3/3 seems to not exist)
> - "CVE-2011-1281: A story of a Windows CSRSS
Privilege Escalation
> vulnerability" http://j00ru.vexillium.org/?p=893
and
> http://mysterie.fr/blog/2011/07/31/cve-2011-1281-privilege-escalation-in-csr
> ss-proof-of-concept/
> - Something that would be interesting for console
and thread desktops :
> "Defeating Windows Driver Signature Enforcement #2:
CSRSS and thread
> desktops" http://j00ru.vexillium.org/?p=1393
> - " Windows Subsytem Csrss" (in French)
> http://www.ivanlef0u.tuxfamily.org/?p=188
>
> - "Story of a dumb patch", Cesar Cerrudo,
> http://www.argeniss.com/research/MSBugPaper.pdf
or
> http://www.scn.rain.com/~neighorn/PDF/MSBugPaper.pdf
>
> - CsrWalker :
> http://forum.sysinternals.com/csrwalker-processes-detection-from-user-mode_t
> opic15457.html
> - Concerning console modes flags:
> https://sites.google.com/site/marckupper/utilities/setconsolemode
> - Documentation about consoles on MSDN:
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms682010(v=vs.85).as
> px
>
> - "Custom console hosts on Windows 7 (Hack in the
Box Magazine #4)"
> http://magazine.hitb.org/issues/HITB-Ezine-Issue-004.pdf
> - "Windows CSRSS Tips & Tricks (Hack in the Box
Magazine #5)"
> http://magazine.hitb.org/issues/HITB-Ezine-Issue-005.pdf
>
> - "Win32 Console (Wikipedia)" and the note 3 of the
article:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Win32_console#cite_note-3
>
> - Undocumented flags of ConsoleProcess:
> http://www.catch22.net/tuts/undocumented-createprocess
