[Live-devel] Performance/Security concern

[Marc Neuberger]

I am new to live555. I am working on a product in which I need to serve 
RTSP/RTP and liveMedia looks to be well-suited to my needs.

However, in studying the code to learn about the architecture, I 
encountered something odd: The RTSP connection is blocking. In 
RTSPServer::RTSPClientSession::incomingRequestHandler1(), the code 
essentially waits until a full RTSP request header has arrived. As a 
result, if I connect to the server and begin sending a header, but do 
not finish the header, the server is wedged until I either complete the 
header or disconnect.

I have actually verified this using telnet and my fingers as a 
slow-moving client. I've tried both win32 and linux with the same results.

This has the performance scaling issue that under heavy load the server 
could be blocking from time to time. It has the security issue that a 
malicious, or poorly-coded client (like telnet and my fingers) can cause 
the server to wedge.

Am I missing something?

Thanks,
Marc Neuberger
Oxy Systems