The cost-selection chaos scenarios (cost-reeval, cost-avoidance,
cost-stability, depth-vs-cost, mixed-technology, bottleneck-parent) tested
TreeState::evaluate_parent's decision logic through a Docker mesh that could
not exercise it reliably: the tree roots at whichever node holds the smallest
NodeAddr, MMP link costs take several measurement windows to settle, and the
parent hold-down plus hysteresis timing all confound the outcome. A
deterministic link-cost flap still produced zero periodic parent switches in a
full run.
Replace those six scenarios with deterministic unit tests in src/tree/tests.rs
that drive evaluate_parent directly: cheaper-link selection at equal depth,
switch-on-cost-change, hysteresis suppressing a marginal change while allowing
a significant one, and the depth-versus-cost effective-depth tradeoff. Each is
constructed so that breaking the cost or hysteresis logic makes it fail.
The congestion kernel-drop signal (SO_RXQ_OVFL) cannot be provoked
deterministically in Docker: a fresh daemon reader keeps up with
container-speed traffic, so the socket receive queue never overflows (an
unshaped run with a 4 KB buffer and heavy traffic recorded zero drops on every
node). Extract the drop-detection edge -- read the cumulative counter, fire an
event only on the transition into a new drop burst -- into
TransportDropState::observe_drops and unit-test it directly. congestion-stress
keeps its ECN and MMP congestion-signal assertions, which do need the real
shaped bottleneck queue.
Remove the retired scenarios from both CI runners and update the chaos README.
Add six forwarding counters that partition transit-forwarded packets by their
tree relationship to the chosen next hop: tree-up (peer is our ancestor),
tree-down (peer is our descendant and the destination is within its subtree),
tree-down-cross (peer is our descendant but the destination is outside its
subtree), cross-link descend (lateral peer, destination within its subtree),
cross-link ascend (lateral peer, destination outside its subtree), and
direct-peer. The six classes sum to forwarded_packets, asserted by a unit
test. Classification is computed from tree coordinates at the transit
chokepoint, so the error-signal routing callers are excluded.
The two "outside the chosen peer's subtree" classes are both up-and-over
forwards but differ in what they depend on. Tree-down-cross is the
dive-to-tree-child cut-through: we forward down to our own child for a
destination not beneath it, which is only possible because the child
advertised cross-link reach upward to us, beyond its own subtree. Its count
measures how much forwarding depends on that upward advertisement, i.e. what
would change if cross-link advertisements were narrowed to subtree-entry only.
Cross-link ascend, by contrast, uses the node's own lateral cross-link learned
from a peer's split-horizon advertisement, so it does not depend on any upward
advertisement.
Surface the counters through the forwarding stats snapshot (control socket,
show_routing and show_status) and reorganize the fipstop routing tab so its
two columns separate own/endpoint traffic (received, delivered, originated)
from forwarded/transit traffic (the route-class breakdown and drop reasons),
with the tree-down-cross line visually flagged.
When a node was the smallest-NodeAddr peer it could see (no smaller
neighbor available as a parent), the spanning-tree state was promoting
it to root. But the ancestry it advertised on the next TreeAnnounce
still referenced its previous parent's path, so receiving peers
rejected the announce with `invalid ancestry: advertised root X is
not the minimum path entry Y`, blocking mesh transit on any path that
needed to traverse this node.
Detect the self-root transition explicitly in `TreeState::become_root`
and rebuild the advertised ancestry to start from self. Also surface
the same path through the MMP receive handler so a stale ancestry
inherited across reconnect is corrected eagerly rather than waiting
for the next observation tick.
Adds 80 unit tests in `tree::tests` covering self-root transitions,
mid-chain ancestor disappearance, and ancestry validation against the
new root, plus a regression in `node::tests::spanning_tree` for a
3-node chain where the middle node's only parent (the smallest-addr
peer) goes away — previously it would advertise an ancestry rejected
by both endpoints; now it self-roots cleanly.
Adds TreeAnnounce::validate_semantics() called from handle_tree_announce
before any tree-state mutation. Enforces that the ancestry accompanying
a parent declaration conforms to the spanning tree rules:
- first ancestry entry matches the signed sender
- is_root declarations carry a single-entry ancestry
- non-root declarations include the signed parent as the second entry
- the advertised root is the minimum node_addr in the ancestry
Non-conforming announcements are rejected with a warn log and no state
change. Adds unit tests for each rejected shape plus an integration
test covering the full receive path in a two-node tree.
Co-authored-by: Johnathan Corgan <johnathan@corganlabs.com>
Rekey dual-initiation race (FMP + FSP):
When both sides' rekey timers fire simultaneously on high-latency links
(Tor ~700ms RTT), both msg1s cross in flight before dampening can
suppress the second initiation. Each node acts as both initiator and
responder, with set_pending_session() from the responder path destroying
the initiator's in-progress state. Each side ends up with a
pending_new_session from a different Noise handshake, causing AEAD
verification failure after cutover and link death. Fix: deterministic
tie-breaker in both FMP msg1 handler and FSP SessionSetup handler
(smaller NodeAddr wins as initiator). Also guard against pending session
overwrite from retransmitted msg1s.
Parent selection SRTT gate:
Peers without MMP RTT data are excluded from parent candidacy via
has_srtt() filter, preventing freshly reconnected peers from appearing
artificially attractive. First-RTT triggers immediate parent re-eval.
The gate in evaluate_parent() skips unmeasured candidates when any peer
has cost data, but falls back to default cost 1.0 during cold start
when no peer has MMP data yet.
Auto-reconnect on all peer removal paths:
The excessive-decryption-failure and peer-restart epoch-mismatch removal
paths were missing schedule_reconnect() calls, causing auto-connect peers
to be permanently abandoned after those events.
Control socket accessibility:
Socket and parent directory chowned to root:fips with mode 0770/0750 so
group members can use fipsctl/fipstop without root.
Log level changes:
Default RUST_LOG changed to debug in systemd service files. "Unknown
session index" log reduced from debug to trace.
evaluate_parent() did not check whether a candidate peer's ancestry
path already contained our own node_addr. Two nodes (e.g., sidecar and
VPS) could each select the other as parent, creating an alternating
coordinate loop that grew unbounded on each TreeAnnounce exchange.
Add loop detection in two places:
- evaluate_parent(): skip candidates whose ancestry contains us
- handle_tree_announce(): detect when current parent's updated ancestry
contains us and drop the parent instead of propagating the loop
Track parent switch frequency in a sliding window. When switches exceed
a configurable threshold (default 4 in 60s), impose an extended hold-down
period (default 120s) that prevents non-mandatory parent changes.
Mandatory switches (parent loss, root change, shouldn't-be-root) bypass
dampening. The flap counter resets when the window expires naturally.
Implements TASK-2026-0030 / IDEA-0013.
Cost-based parent selection:
- Replace depth-only parent selection with effective_depth = depth + link_cost
- link_cost computed from locally measured MMP metrics: etx * (1.0 + srtt_ms / 100.0)
- Prevents bottleneck subtrees in heterogeneous networks where a LoRa link
at depth 1 would otherwise always beat fiber at depth 2
- Configurable hysteresis (default 0.2) prevents marginal parent switches
- Configurable hold-down timer (default 30s) suppresses re-evaluation
after parent switch
- Mandatory switches (parent lost, root change) bypass both safeguards
- Link costs passed as HashMap parameter to keep TreeState pure
Periodic re-evaluation:
- evaluate_parent() was only called on TreeAnnounce receipt or parent loss;
after tree stabilization, link degradation went undetected
- Added timer-based re-evaluation (reeval_interval_secs, default 60s) that
calls evaluate_parent() from the tick handler with current MMP link costs
- Respects existing hold-down and hysteresis safeguards
- Short-circuits when disabled or <2 peers
Design documentation:
- Update 7 design docs to reflect cost-based parent selection
- Replace depth-only algorithm descriptions with effective_depth model
- Replace rejected cumulative path cost spec with local-only design rationale
- Rewrite Example 2 (heterogeneous links) for local-only cost model
- Update config docs: parent_switch_threshold replaced by parent_hysteresis,
hold_down_secs, reeval_interval_secs
Chaos simulation enhancements:
- fips_overrides with deep merge for per-scenario FIPS config customization
- Explicit topology algorithm for deterministic test graphs
- Control socket querying via fipsctl for tree/MMP snapshot collection
- Edge existence validation in netem manager
- Per-link netem policy overrides
- 9 new chaos scenarios covering cost avoidance, depth-vs-cost tradeoffs,
stability, mixed topologies, periodic re-evaluation, and bottleneck parent
12 new unit tests, 667 total passing, clippy clean.
Johnathan Corgan
Martti MalmiandJohnathan Corgan
Sats And SportsandJohnathan Corgan