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[GH-ISSUE #3990] [Bug] Headless IDA string search returns success after an embedded provider failure #1587
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opened 2026-10-16 21:07:29 +00:00 by bsakaguchi
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Originally created by @coygeek on GitHub (Oct 15, 2026).
Original GitHub issue: https://github.com/morluto/rea/issues/3990
Before submitting
Area
Native analysis or decompilation
Observed behavior
The headless IDA adapter returns a successful empty
search_stringsresult when a modern string page contains an explicit producer error, an empty match list, and a terminal cursor. The caller receives the failure only inside raw Evidence. This can make a failed scan look like a complete search that found no matching defined strings. The local reproduction exercised the adapter behavior through the public stdio MCP process using a simulated provider, without an IDA engine.Reproduction
Use the baseline in the REA version and Runtime and platform fields with its pinned Node.js, installed dependencies, and built runtime. From the repository root, save the following script in a disposable directory outside the checkout and run all three scenarios. The script starts only local stdio processes, supplies a minimal ELF fixture, isolates HOME and the provider workspace, and closes each admitted session.
The
embeddedcase puts{"matches":[],"cursor":{"done":true},"error":"Search fixture failed"}into the producer's normal MCP JSON text result. Thecleancase omits only the embedded error property. Theenvelopecase retains the failed page and sets upstream MCPisError: true. All cases call the publicsearch_stringstool with{"pattern":"needle"}after successfulopen_binaryadmission.Expected behavior
An explicit failed string scan must not become a successful complete empty search. REA must preserve the meaningful producer failure and return the documented MCP error response. A page that successfully completes with no defined strings must still return a successful empty result. Completeness applies to provider-defined string objects; it does not establish that the binary contains no other text.
Impact and scope
A bounded provider failure becomes a false complete empty search result. This can mislead callers that use normalized results for string discovery. The demonstrated trigger is a simulated error-bearing page; real-provider frequency and wider effects are unknown.
The observed successful Evidence retains the explicit producer error in
raw_result.observations, so callers can inspect it and treat this scan as failed instead of accepting the empty result. That preserves the failure signal but does not recover results from the failed producer scan.REA version
rea 6.5.0 at source commit
4692bb3330Runtime and platform
Node 24.18.0; macOS arm64
Target and artifact context
Synthetic x86_64 ELF header for admission; local simulated headless IDA database-supervisor over stdio.
Interface
MCP
Earliest failure stage
Native analysis or reconstruction
Relevant output or evidence
src/contracts/officialToolContracts.ts:198, thesearch_stringscontract, promises deterministic complete results over provider-defined strings.AGENTS.md, Architecture and Cleanup, requires preserving meaningful failure reasons from unknown boundary values.docs/mcp-contracts.md:72requires execution failures to returnisError: truewith a canonical diagnostic.docs/ida-provider.md, Give REA a target for headless analysis, documents the database-supervisor profile used here.src/ida/IdaOperationRunner.ts:322andsrc/ida/IdaProtocolValues.ts:138shows that the modern page parser consumes the matches and terminal cursor without retaining the embedded error field.src/ida/IdaMcpConnection.ts,decodeIdaToolResult, handles envelope-level errors, which agrees with the passing envelope-error control.The runtime result is observed. The parser explanation is source-derived. This report establishes adapter handling of the given provider-boundary payload, not compatibility behavior of any particular installed IDA server release.
Each scenario ran once. The embedded failure returned the following public result summary:
The clean control returned
isError: falseand an empty normalized result. The envelope-error control returnedisError: truewith canonical error codeunreadable_outputand the producer failure in its diagnostic, without a successful structured result. In all three cases,close_binarysucceeded, the REA process exited with code 0, and stderr was empty. The producer database identifier above is a generic replacement for the generated owned-session value.Typed outcome or recovery expected
Run the embedded-error scenario and require a failed public MCP response that preserves
Search fixture failed, rather than successful empty structured Evidence. Run the clean control and require its successful empty result to remain valid. Run the envelope-error control and require its existing failure behavior to remain intact. Require successful session close and process exit in each case. Real-provider compatibility requires a separate engine run and is outside this reproduction.Analysis or suspected cause
The source references above explain the observed behavior. Runtime claims are limited to the explicitly described simulation boundaries.
Additional context
Runtime claims above describe the supplied local reproduction at the baseline commit. Real-provider frequency remains unmeasured.
The relevant failure code is unchanged on current
origin/mainfc712b3750.@XinwangTao commented on GitHub (Oct 15, 2026):
Confirmed: an explicit producer error plus terminal cursor is not an empty result set — surfacing it as a successful search_strings makes a failed scan indistinguishable from a genuine no-match. The adapter should propagate the provider error into the call result (or at least an explicit diagnostic), keeping the empty-list meaning reserved for real complete searches.
@yankikucuk commented on GitHub (Oct 15, 2026):
Working on this. Reproduced with your stdio probe: the embedded case returned successful empty Evidence. The shared string page schema now reads the optional
errorand rejects a page that reports one with a protocol error naming the producer failure (headless and native alike; the native schema reuses it). The probe now returnsisError: truewithunreadable_outputand "Search fixture failed" retained in the diagnostic, the clean control stays an empty success, the envelope control is unchanged, and close and exit succeed in all three. Draft PR follows shortly.@morluto commented on GitHub (Oct 15, 2026):
Fixed on main in
bfacfbac3. Explicit IDA string-page errors are retained by the shared contract and rejected once by the runner before successful matches can be returned. Raw replies remain available as partial Evidence.Public stdio MCP replay passed embedded-error, clean-empty and error-envelope cases, with successful cleanup and zero exit status. The 61 client tests also passed, including a failed later page with matches and prior observations retained. These are simulated-producer checks; no real IDA engine reproduction is claimed. Closing the adapter false-success defect.
Implementation qualification passed: CI at d9aa06d93. This verifies the implementation revision; the later PCAP-only batch has its own checks.