Abend while using SSH / SFTP to a NetWare server

  • 3959337
  • 23-Oct-2007
  • 27-Apr-2012

Environment

Novell NetWare 6.5 Support Pack 5
Novell NetWare 6.5 Support Pack 6
Novell NetWare 6.5 Support Pack 7

Situation

An SSH or SFTP client connects to a NetWare 6.5 server and an abend occurs in an SSHD.NLM thread, while executing LLDAPSDK.NLM code.

Resolution

There has been more than one cause for these types of abends.  One was fixed in NetWare 6.5 SP6.  Another was addresses in NetWare 6.5 SP8.  More complete details of the problems and potential solutions are below:
 
In some cases, a similar abend has occurred even when using the SSHD materials from SP6 or SP7.  Analysis of some of these cases has indicated that they can occur if the LDAP searches performed by SSHD.NLM are timing out.  See KB 7000605 for instructions on speeding up these LDAP searches.
 
Further code fixes (to address the abend after a search timeout) have been released in SP8.
 
For those who are not yet ready to update to SP8, the SSHD materials can be individual updated.  Download the SP8 materials.  Find the file /PRODUCTS/SSH/SSHCORE.ZIP.  This zip file will contain a SYSTEM subdirectory with all the SSHD-related NLMs.  Extract / copy these NLMs in such a way that they all go into SYS:SYSTEM.  Then unload / reload SSHD.NLM.
 
For best OpenSSH functionality, Novell also recommends updating LIBC.NLM as well. LIBC.NLM updates are available in OS Support Packs and are often separately available in downloads named LIBCSPxx.ZIP (where xx is replaced by a characters which change upon each revision).

Additional Information

The top of the abend log data for this abend will look as follows, though not necessarily an exact match:
Server NETBOX1 halted Monday, October 23, 2006 4:10:06.115 pm
Abend 1 on P00: Server-5.70.05: Page Fault Processor Exception (Error code 00000000)
Registers:
CS = 0060 DS = 007B ES = 007B FS = 007B GS = 007B SS = 0068
EAX = 0000003F EBX = 0000003F ECX = 00000001 EDX = 9A29E200
ESI = 00000004 EDI = 000000C2 EBP = 9F655728 ESP = 9F655720
EIP = 927569C9 FLAGS = 00010202
927569C9 8B4318 MOV EAX, [EBX+18]=?
EIP in LLDAPSDK.NLM at code start +000029C9h
Access Location: 0x00000057
The violation occurred while processing the following instruction:
927569C9 8B4318 MOV EAX, [EBX+18]
927569CC 50 PUSH EAX
927569CD E84E060000 CALL 92757020
927569D2 59 POP ECX
927569D3 8B4324 MOV EAX, [EBX+24]
927569D6 85C0 TEST EAX, EAX
927569D8 7416 JZ 927569F0
927569DA 8D8000000000 LEA EAX, [EAX+00000000]
927569E0 8B7014 MOV ESI, [EAX+14]
927569E3 50 PUSH EAX
Running process: SSHD Session 1 Process
Thread Owned by NLM: SSHD.NLM