[NIFI-5550] Cluster should handle replicating DELETE request with non-zero content length header

• Type: Bug
• Status: Resolved
• Priority: Critical
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 1.5.0, 1.6.0, 1.7.1
• Fix Version/s: 1.8.0
• Component/s: Core Framework
• Labels: cluster http request_replication security
• Assignee: Andy LoPresto
• Reporter: Andy LoPresto
• Created: 24/Aug/18 00:58
• Updated: 28/Nov/18 01:35
• Resolved: 28/Nov/18 01:35

Description

When sending a DELETE request to a node in the cluster, the cluster coordinator attempts to replicate the request to all nodes in the cluster before committing it (two phase commit). According to RFC 7231, a DELETE request may have a body, but the body has no defined purpose:

A payload within a DELETE request message has no defined semantics; sending a payload body on a DELETE request might cause some existing implementations to reject the request.

The cluster request replication does not expect a request body when a DELETE request is received, so when it replicates the request to other nodes, it does not include the body, if present. However, the Content-Length header is forwarded in tact, and if this header contains a non-zero length, the other nodes will wait to receive the expected body. This can cause request time outs.

The solution is to intercept DELETE requests with a non-zero Content-Length header and overwrite that value to 0.

Issue Links

• is duplicated by: NIFI-5628 Verify content length on replicated requests