FYI: libstderred.so breaks update-initramfs, yielding unbootable kernel images

[jefft]

Not sure if this is libstderred.so's fault, but just FYI: use of libstderred.so can result in an unbootable computer:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/initramfs-tools/+bug/1729836

Specifically, if you:

• Use libstderred.so via LD_PRELOAD in ~/.bashrc
• Become root via 'sudo -sE', preserving your environment (I habitually do this to preserve SSH agent forwarding).
• Manually 'apt-get update', which happens to involve a kernel update

..then the update-initramfs script will run as a postinst hook. update-initramfs really does not like libstderred.so. Output goes red halfway, and the generated initrd file will contain binary files with ANSI color codes embedded. After a reboot the kernel sees all this and panics.

There's probably something I could add to STDERRED_BLACKLIST but I can't figure out what (I tried update-initramfs, mkinitramfs and bash without success).

LD_PRELOAD is such a glorious footgun :)

[milkey-mouse]

Using this globally seems like a really bad idea...

[devnoname120]

Did you try to add update-initramfs to the STDERRED_BLACKLIST environment variable?

See:
https://github.com/ku1ik/stderred/blob/97a51c97f757d3a23efc90b15bf95d5af632c8f8/src/stderred.c#L44C28-L52

If it solves the issue then I'd suggest you do a pull request to exclude it by default just like we already do for bash,