Firewall configuration utility process (socketfilterfw) leaks memory

Comments

• FabulousPanda

  December 2013

  Thanks for the report, are you connecting to the knc over vpn or what? And when you say the memory leak stops - does all the backed up memory instantly get released as well? 

  
  

  This article shows you how you can 'trust' certain apps with it, I wonder whether that would stop the leak. I'm not sure whether you'd have to trust the MacMiner binary or the apiaccess one though.

  http://krypted.com/tag/socketfilterfw/

  
  

  I'll try to test this in a  VM - how long did it take to accumulate that much memory?

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• XFox

  December 2013 edited December 2013

  I'm connecting to the KnCMiner miner with a direct Internet connection (no VPN). I simply configured the Internet router on the miner end to forward a certain port to the 4028 miner's port. I use a DDNS service to lookup the dynamic IP address associated with the Internet connection of the miner at any given time.

  
  

  When I turn off the firewall, the socketfilterfw process is terminated and thus the memory get released instantly. When I clear the networked miners in the API Output window, the socketfilterfw process is not terminated and the memory is not released but the process' memory usage (almost) stops increasing.

  
  

  That "almost" made me wonder, so I monitored socketfilterfw when MacMiner wasn't running and it ended up that the process eats RAM even when MacMiner is closed, albeit at a very slower rate! With the MacMiner's API Output window running, socketfilterfw eats about 100 MB every 30 minutes. If I close MacMiner or put the apiaccess executable in the trusted apps list, the memory leak slows down but doesn't stop, so the problem is not MacMiner dependent.

  
  

  I verified that this issue exists on OS X 10.8.5 (12F45), too, and I've also found another report of it. Can you confirm it, too?

  Next I'll check if it also affects Mavericks and I'll file the bug report with Apple.

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• FabulousPanda

  December 2013

  It's been so long I can't remember the original reason why, but some problem with the firewall has caused me to be someone who immediately turns off the Apple firewall and relies on a network firewall and Little Snitch, the outgoing connections firewall. I've only had it running a little while on 10.9 Mavericks but the problem certainly isn't as pronounced as that if still here, socketfilterfw memory usage has risen from 9Mb to 45 so far. I haven't had the chance to check it out on 10.8 yet though, sorry about that! Mine is just on the local network too.

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• FabulousPanda

  December 2013

  Just a note to add that it's up to 180mb today..

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• FabulousPanda

  January 2014

  This is definitely a problem on both the 10.7 machine and the 10.9 machine I tested, though the 10.9 machine accumulates memory much more slowly. I didn't check 10.8 but you have that covered so hopefully Apple will assign someone to this bug if you're reporting it! If you're using the developer bug submission process link me and I'll back up your entry.

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• XFox

  January 2014

  I'm sorry I still haven't found the time to file the bug report.

  As soon as I'll file it, I'll post it on Open Radar, too, and I'll update this thread with the bug number.

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