Add an in-memory cache for CRLs on Linux

[bartonjs]

Introduce an extra layer of caching for CRLs.

• The cache has a fixed size of 30 elements. When full, it evicts the least-recently-used entry.
• Using the same finalizable object sentinel approach as ArrayPool, the cache will purge entries every time the GC finalizes.
  • During a finalize, the current MRU node is marked as what to purge next time.
    • Using that node moves the purge target to the next-older entry before the node is promoted back to MRU.
  • On the subsequent finalize, the marked node (and everything after it) are purged.
• To avoid finalizing the CRL SafeHandles, the cache does an AddReference on every item that is returned (so the caller must Release it), and it calls Dispose on anything it evicts.

This implementation ignores any finalizations that happen in the first minute of the sentinel object's life, to allow the object a chance to get into Gen2 before hyper-eagerly evicting things.

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[bartonjs]

Testing with a cert that has a large CRL, revocation-enabled chain building is significantly reduced. This is from building a chain 5 times in a row, the last build:

Before:

2026-01-23T19:52:47.746Z: ChainStart - Starting X.509 chain build.
2026-01-23T19:52:47.748Z: FindFirstChainFinished - First build finished with status 0.
2026-01-23T19:52:47.748Z: RevocationCheckStart - Starting revocation check in mode 'Online' with scope 'ExcludeRoot' on a 3-element chain.
2026-01-23T19:52:47.748Z: CrlIdentifiersDetermined - Certificate 'CN=*.redis.cache.windows.net, O=Microsoft Corporation, L=Redmond, S=WA, C=US' has a CRL Distribution Point of 'http://www.microsoft.com/pkiops/crl/Microsoft%20Azure%20RSA%20TLS%20Issuing%20CA%2004.crl', will use '093932f7.a38db5b0.crl' as the cache file.
2026-01-23T19:52:47.748Z: CrlCacheCheckStart - Checking for a cached CRL.
2026-01-23T19:52:48.123Z: CrlCacheAcceptedFile - The cached crl nextUpdate value (2026-01-28T14:33:08.0000000-08:00) is acceptable, using the cached file.
2026-01-23T19:52:48.123Z: CrlCacheCheckStop - Duration 374.733ms
2026-01-23T19:52:48.123Z: CrlIdentifiersDetermined - Certificate 'CN=Microsoft Azure RSA TLS Issuing CA 04, O=Microsoft Corporation, C=US' has a CRL Distribution Point of 'http://crl3.digicert.com/DigiCertGlobalRootG2.crl', will use '607986c7.8ab5229e.crl' as the cache file.
2026-01-23T19:52:48.123Z: CrlCacheCheckStart - Checking for a cached CRL.
2026-01-23T19:52:48.123Z: CrlCacheAcceptedFile - The cached crl nextUpdate value (2026-02-09T09:43:56.0000000-08:00) is acceptable, using the cached file.
2026-01-23T19:52:48.123Z: CrlCacheCheckStop - Duration 0.225ms
2026-01-23T19:52:48.224Z: CrlChainFinished - With CRLs applied, the chain build finished with status 0.
2026-01-23T19:52:48.224Z: RevocationCheckStop - Duration 476.439ms
2026-01-23T19:52:48.358Z: ChainStop - Duration 611.607ms

After:

2026-01-23T19:53:24.099Z: ChainStart - Starting X.509 chain build.
2026-01-23T19:53:24.101Z: FindFirstChainFinished - First build finished with status 0.
2026-01-23T19:53:24.101Z: RevocationCheckStart - Starting revocation check in mode 'Online' with scope 'ExcludeRoot' on a 3-element chain.
2026-01-23T19:53:24.101Z: CrlIdentifiersDetermined - Certificate 'CN=*.redis.cache.windows.net, O=Microsoft Corporation, L=Redmond, S=WA, C=US' has a CRL Distribution Point of 'http://www.microsoft.com/pkiops/crl/Microsoft%20Azure%20RSA%20TLS%20Issuing%20CA%2004.crl', will use '093932f7.a38db5b0.crl' as the cache file.
2026-01-23T19:53:24.101Z: CrlCacheInMemoryHit - The in-memory CRL cache has a valid entry for the requested CRL, expiration at 2026-01-28T14:33:08.0000000-08:00.
2026-01-23T19:53:24.101Z: CrlIdentifiersDetermined - Certificate 'CN=Microsoft Azure RSA TLS Issuing CA 04, O=Microsoft Corporation, C=US' has a CRL Distribution Point of 'http://crl3.digicert.com/DigiCertGlobalRootG2.crl', will use '607986c7.8ab5229e.crl' as the cache file.
2026-01-23T19:53:24.101Z: CrlCacheInMemoryHit - The in-memory CRL cache has a valid entry for the requested CRL, expiration at 2026-02-09T09:43:56.0000000-08:00.
2026-01-23T19:53:24.122Z: CrlChainFinished - With CRLs applied, the chain build finished with status 0.
2026-01-23T19:53:24.122Z: RevocationCheckStop - Duration 21.174ms
2026-01-23T19:53:24.122Z: ChainStop - Duration 22.639ms

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR introduces an in-memory LRU cache layer for Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs) on Linux to improve performance by reducing disk I/O. The cache sits between the caller and the existing disk cache, with a fixed capacity of 30 entries that evicts least-recently-used items when full. The implementation uses a GC-based pruning mechanism similar to ArrayPool, where a finalizable sentinel object triggers periodic cache cleanup to manage memory pressure.

Changes:

• Added 5 new event source events for tracking in-memory cache hits, misses, expiration, pruning, and capacity events
• Updated existing event messages to clarify they refer to disk cache operations
• Implemented MruCrlCache class with thread-safe LRU eviction, reference counting via DangerousAddRef/DangerousRelease, and GC-triggered pruning
• Refactored CRL loading to check in-memory cache first, then disk cache, then download
• Added proper SafeHandle management to prevent premature finalization during cache operations

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 12 comments.

File	Description
OpenSslX509ChainEventSource.cs	Added 5 new event IDs and methods for in-memory cache telemetry; updated existing event messages to distinguish disk cache operations
OpenSslCrlCache.cs	Added MruCrlCache class implementing thread-safe LRU cache with GC-based pruning; refactored CRL loading logic to check memory cache before disk; added proper SafeHandle reference management

[grbell-ms]

This implementation ignores any finalizations that happen in the first minute of the sentinel object's life, to allow the object a chance to get into Gen2 before hyper-eagerly evicting things.

Might be simpler to check directly with GC.GetGeneration

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

[bartonjs]

Verified with a high memory utilization app (just makes a bunch of HTTPS requests to a large-enough number of different endpoints that it's not always just one CRL) that purge still runs with the GC.GetGeneration deferral check.

$ grep Prune log
2026-02-04T19:03:52.270Z (2850560): CrlCacheInMemoryPruned - The in-memory CRL cache was pruned. 1 entries removed, 11 entries remain.
2026-02-04T19:03:53.304Z (2850560): CrlCacheInMemoryPruned - The in-memory CRL cache was pruned. 1 entries removed, 10 entries remain.
2026-02-04T19:03:53.446Z (2850560): CrlCacheInMemoryPruned - The in-memory CRL cache was pruned. 7 entries removed, 3 entries remain.
2026-02-04T19:03:55.915Z (2850560): CrlCacheInMemoryPruned - The in-memory CRL cache was pruned. 2 entries removed, 3 entries remain.
2026-02-04T19:03:57.641Z (2850560): CrlCacheInMemoryPruned - The in-memory CRL cache was pruned. 4 entries removed, 5 entries remain.
2026-02-04T19:03:58.370Z (2850560): CrlCacheInMemoryPruned - The in-memory CRL cache was pruned. 2 entries removed, 3 entries remain.
2026-02-04T19:03:59.984Z (2850560): CrlCacheInMemoryPruned - The in-memory CRL cache was pruned. 1 entries removed, 3 entries remain.
2026-02-04T19:04:04.780Z (2850560): CrlCacheInMemoryPruned - The in-memory CRL cache was pruned. 2 entries removed, 3 entries remain.
2026-02-04T19:04:06.808Z (2850560): CrlCacheInMemoryPruned - The in-memory CRL cache was pruned. 2 entries removed, 3 entries remain.
2026-02-04T19:04:09.219Z (2850560): CrlCacheInMemoryPruned - The in-memory CRL cache was pruned. 2 entries removed, 3 entries remain.
2026-02-04T19:04:10.075Z (2850560): CrlCacheInMemoryPruned - The in-memory CRL cache was pruned. 1 entries removed, 2 entries remain.
2026-02-04T19:06:23.544Z (2850560): CrlCacheInMemoryPruned - The in-memory CRL cache was pruned. 5 entries removed, 2 entries remain.
2026-02-04T19:08:53.053Z (2850560): CrlCacheInMemoryPruned - The in-memory CRL cache was pruned. 4 entries removed, 5 entries remain.
2026-02-04T19:09:36.261Z (2850560): CrlCacheInMemoryPruned - The in-memory CRL cache was pruned. 3 entries removed, 3 entries remain.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 3 out of 3 changed files in this pull request and generated 7 comments.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 3 out of 3 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 3 out of 3 changed files in this pull request and generated no new comments.

[bartonjs]

/backport to release/10.0

[github-actions]

Started backporting to release/10.0 (link to workflow run)

[bartonjs]

/backport to release/9.0-staging

[github-actions]

Started backporting to release/9.0-staging (link to workflow run)

[bartonjs]

/backport to release/8.0-staging

[github-actions]

Started backporting to release/8.0-staging (link to workflow run)