Modify user_ldap checkPassword to not fetch records from ldap each time because of extremely high CPU usage!

[akhil1508]

Summary

• Currently on each checkPassword call, the function getLDAPUserByLoginName is called

• This calls fetchListOfUsers which is defined here

• So on each authentication request:

  • there is first an admin bind to LDAP(if not already existing)
  • a search request to LDAP
  • a bunch of SQL UPDATEs from calling batchApplyUserAttributes
  • a user BIND to LDAP to check if credentials are valid

• DAV mobile clients(for example DAVx5) don't support token auth or oauth yet. This means that they pass the username and password on every single sync request

• We have an NC instance serving around 100 DAV sync requests every second

• For every sync request the LDAP logs look like(admin bind + search for user):

conn=1687813954 fd=21 ACCEPT from IP=*** (IP=***)
conn=1687813954 op=0 BIND dn="***" method=128
conn=1687813954 op=0 BIND dn="***" mech=SIMPLE bind_ssf=0 ssf=0
conn=1687813954 op=0 RESULT tag=97 err=0 qtime=0.000014 etime=0.000156 text=
conn=1687813954 op=1 SRCH base="***" scope=2 deref=0 filter="***"
conn=1687813954 op=1 SRCH attr=entryuuid nsuniqueid objectguid guid ipauniqueid dn uid samaccountname memberof conn=1687813954 op=1 SEARCH RESULT tag=101 err=0 qtime=0.000027 etime=0.000332 nentries=1 text=

• followed by BIND(to check user credentials)

conn=1687813956 fd=51 ACCEPT from IP=*** (IP=***)
conn=1687813956 op=0 BIND dn="***" method=128
conn=1687813956 op=0 BIND dn="***" mech=SIMPLE bind_ssf=0 ssf=0
conn=1687813956 op=0 RESULT tag=97 err=0 qtime=0.000012 etime=0.004391 text=

• CPU Usage by openldap is extremely high! CPU usage by database is similarly extremely high but lower compared to LDAP

Proposed solution here

• Get username and dn from cache if existing
  • Use the loginName2UserName function that will fetch the ldap record and update attributes if it is not in cache
• Check credentials with BIND but don't process attributes again
  • $user->processAttributes here seems redundant as it is already done during the getLDAPUserByLoginName function call
• Will save ~0.5ms per auth request if user already cached
  • Doesn't sound like too big a deal but with 100 auth requests per second, this can definitely help the load issue
• Will also avoid ~12 SQL UPDATE operations on each authentication request
  • ~6 if user is not cached yet
  • UNBIND happens in the destructor of the Connection class so pretty sure it is done only after all these SQL commands are completed, which means the LDAP bind stays open till then

Please do let me know if there are any pitfalls to this and if the ldap record fetching and processing on every single authentication request happens for an unavoidable reason I am not aware of..

Checklist

• Code is properly formatted
• Sign-off message is added to all commits
• Tests (unit, integration, api and/or acceptance) are included
• Screenshots before/after for front-end changes
• Documentation (manuals or wiki) has been updated or is not required
• Backports requested where applicable (ex: critical bugfixes)

[come-nc]

Hello, thanks for looking into this!

Proposed solution here

• Get username and dn from cache if existing

  • Use the loginName2UserName function that will fetch the ldap record and update attributes if it is not in cache

This means that the new users will not be able to login until cache expires, which may lead to worse user experience on some setups.

• Check credentials with BIND but don't process attributes again

  • $user->processAttributes here seems redundant as it is already done during the getLDAPUserByLoginName function call

Same thing here, forcing attributes update from LDAP on login is most likely to improve user experience and avoid having to wait on background job to see a change applied in Nextcloud.

So, I think it was on purpose that cache is not used in checkPassword. That said, it’s of course a big problem if that gets triggered on each request for DAV requests in some cases.

We should try to see if we can find a middle ground here, maybe look into cache but if user does not exist, force an LDAP search?
For the update of DB data I’m not sure, maybe we can not force it, but it does seem handy to be able to force refresh by logging out then in. But if the data is from cache anyway it does make sense to push to DB though…

@blizzz Thoughts?

[akhil1508]

@come-nc

This means that the new users will not be able to login until cache expires, which may lead to worse user experience on some setups.

This is fine imo(new users will be able to login) as the function loginName2Username does first check cache and if user not existing, it fetches from LDAP as seen over here

Same thing here, forcing attributes update from LDAP on login is most likely to improve user experience and avoid having to wait on background job to see a change applied in Nextcloud.

This is true for sure; my only counter-point is that the cache usually does reset much quicker than the background job run time(especially with lots of users) so the user is fetched from LDAP much more frequently than the bg job(just not everytime). Otherwise, maybe we could even set a config value in config.php for this and if set to true(defaulting to false), we can fetch from cache or otherwise fetch and update attributes on every single login.

We should try to see if we can find a middle ground here, maybe look into cache but if user does not exist, force an LDAP search?

This is already done, please see my point about the loginName2Username function above :)

For the update of DB data I’m not sure, maybe we can not force it, but it does seem handy to be able to force refresh by logging out then in. But if the data is from cache anyway it does make sense to push to DB though…

For me its okay to update once on every cache reset but if other users want the update every time, we can use a config option for this as mentioned above.

[come-nc]

This means that the new users will not be able to login until cache expires, which may lead to worse user experience on some setups.

This is fine imo(new users will be able to login) as the function loginName2Username does first check cache and if user not existing, it fetches from LDAP as seen over here

No, if the user does not exists false is cached:

server/apps/user_ldap/lib/User_LDAP.php

Line 138 in 7ee61dd

$this->access->connection->writeToCache($cacheKey, false);

On the next call if false is cached it is returned without LDAP request:

server/apps/user_ldap/lib/User_LDAP.php

Lines 121 to 123 in 7ee61dd

	if ($username !== null) {
	return$username;
	}

[akhil1508]

@come-nc

On the next call if false is cached it is returned without LDAP request

Fair point. My bad, didn't notice the strict comparison against null. I try to see how we can achieve correct behaviour where we fetch if not cached.

But also, this seems like an edge case(an important one maybe?) to me. How often can we expect users to try login with a non-existent username and then a new user with that same username is added within the cache timeout time?

[akhil1508]

@come-nc What about something like:

publicfunctionloginName2UserName($loginName, bool$overrideCacheIfFalse = false) {
$cacheKey = 'loginName2UserName-' . $loginName;
$username = $this->access->connection->getFromCache($cacheKey);
$overrideCache = $overrideCacheIfFalse && $username === false;
if ($username !== null && !$overrideCache) {
return$username;
}
....
}

And then:

publicfunction checkPassword($uid, $password) {
$username = $this->loginName2UserName($uid, true);
...

[akhil1508]

@come-nc@blizzz@icewind1991 Anything? Please comment if possible if it is okay overall(does not break authentication) so I can test on our servers to see if load goes down a lot by this..

Thanks a lot :)

[come-nc]

@come-nc@blizzz@icewind1991 Anything? Please comment if possible if it is okay overall(does not break authentication) so I can test on our servers to see if load goes down a lot by this..

Thanks a lot :)

Yes it looks good enough that you can test it.

[blizzz]

Mh, Attributes are not processed i.e. not updated anymore now on login despite no cache hit. It will be done only for newly mapped users. Unless I oversaw something?

[akhil1508]

Mh, Attributes are not processed i.e. not updated anymore now on login despite no cache hit. It will be done only for newly mapped users. Unless I oversaw something?

@blizzz If no cache hit we proceed to

server/apps/user_ldap/lib/User_LDAP.php

Line 126 in 5c4b4bd

$ldapRecord = $this->getLDAPUserByLoginName($loginName);

so they are processed

Looks like I am mistaken.. Seems like over here, an empty array is sent even after cache invalidation.

server/apps/user_ldap/lib/Access.php

Line 881 in 5c4b4bd

$this->batchApplyUserAttributes($recordsToUpdate);

You are right, let me see how this can be handled.

[akhil1508]

Mh, Attributes are not processed i.e. not updated anymore now on login despite no cache hit. It will be done only for newly mapped users. Unless I oversaw something?

@blizzz Handled now. Please check.

[akhil1508]

@blizzz Seems like I removed reviewers by mistake and am unable to re-add :/

Please do re-add @come-nc and @icewind1991 when possible

[akhil1508]

@come-nc@blizzz@icewind1991 It seems good on test servers. Do you think it's okay to put into production as it is currently as server load is crazy high..

[sorbaugh]

Nice PR! Let's see that we get it added to 31 🚀

[akhil1508]

Nice PR! Let's see that we get it added to 30 🚀

@sorbaugh Do you need anything from my side to make the merge?

[skjnldsv]

@akhil1508 if possible, could you fix the ldap test failure in apps/user_ldap/tests/User_LDAPTest.php:235 ?
Do you need help with it? :)

1) OCA\User_LDAP\Tests\User_LDAPTest::testCheckPasswordUidReturn
TypeError: Mock_Access_94083a34::areCredentialsValid(): Argument #1 ($name) must be of type string, null given, called in /home/runner/actions-runner/_work/server/server/apps/user_ldap/lib/User_LDAP.php on line 162
/home/runner/actions-runner/_work/server/server/apps/user_ldap/lib/User_LDAP.php:162
/home/runner/actions-runner/_work/server/server/apps/user_ldap/tests/User_LDAPTest.php:184
2) OCA\User_LDAP\Tests\User_LDAPTest::testCheckPasswordPublicAPI
TypeError: Mock_Access_94083a34::areCredentialsValid(): Argument #1 ($name) must be of type string, null given, called in /home/runner/actions-runner/_work/server/server/apps/user_ldap/lib/User_LDAP.php on line 162
/home/runner/actions-runner/_work/server/server/apps/user_ldap/lib/User_LDAP.php:162
/home/runner/actions-runner/_work/server/server/lib/private/User/Manager.php:231
/home/runner/actions-runner/_work/server/server/lib/private/User/Manager.php:201
/home/runner/actions-runner/_work/server/server/apps/user_ldap/tests/User_LDAPTest.php:235

[akhil1508]

Do you need help with it? :)

@skjnldsv Yes please. It doesn't seem like my changes should break unit tests. Is it maybe related to being up to date with master? Should I merge master into the branch again?

[skjnldsv]

@akhil1508 could you enable us to make modifications to this branch?
There should be an option at the bottom right

If possible avoid merging master into this branch, it's preferable if you rebase instead (to avoid creating a merge commit) :)

[akhil1508]

@skjnldsv Is it OK if I add a new PR from a personal fork?

Organization forks don't allow maintainer modifications https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/5634

[skjnldsv]

@skjnldsv Is it OK if I add a new PR from a personal fork?
Organization forks don't allow maintainer modifications github.com/orgs/community/discussions/5634

Oh! I didn't know that :)
It's alright, I think rebasing to master and addressing my last comment should do it :)

[akhil1508]

@skjnldsv Rebased and also attempted to fix the unit test

[skjnldsv]

@skjnldsv Rebased and also attempted to fix the unit test

Amazing! Looks good! I approved the tests, let's see if they pass 🤞

[skjnldsv]

Cypress & Performance testing failure expected
We'll ignore the unconventional commits for this one 😉
If you create future PRs, please follow the conventional commits pattern 😜

[skjnldsv]

Thank you for your patience and commitment @akhil1508 !! 🎉 🎉

[akhil1508]

@skjnldsv

Thank you for your patience and commitment @akhil1508 !! 🎉 🎉

And thanks to you too! :)