GeezerVison

Closes #1996.

Problem

Agent-mode apply rewrote a gem's ext/**/*.c in place and reported the gem as patched. Ruby never loads those sources: it loads the extension RubyGems compiled at install time, so the vulnerable code kept running (e.g. every json 2.10.x–2.17.x patch for GHSA-x2f5-4prf-w687).

Fix: rebuild (the issue's option 2), with refusal as the fallback

New core module patch/gem_ext.rs, called from the gem branch of apply, from rollback, and from the installed-tree verdict in vex::verify.

• Detection follows the issue: changed .c .h .cc .cpp .cxx .hh .hpp .hxx .m .y .rl, extconf.rb, ext/**/depend, or any file under the directory of a build script the installed gemspec's extensions names (this covers Rust/CMake/Rakefile extensions). A .y/.rl file in a gem that declares no extensions is not an input, since racc/ragel output ships pre-generated.
• Rebuild: the patched sources are written, then RubyGems' own Gem::Ext::Builder#build_extensions runs (what gem pristine --extensions runs). The Ruby used is the one that owns the install: <prefix>/bin/ruby for a <prefix>/lib/ruby/gems/<abi> home (never a prefix inside the project), else ruby on PATH, run from --cwd so rbenv/asdf pick the project's Ruby. A candidate is accepted only if its spec resolves to this gem dir and its extension dir is the installed one. The child runs without RUBYOPT/RUBYLIB/BUNDLE*, with the gem home first on GEM_PATH.
• Old build moved aside first: ExtConfBuilder never overwrites files already in the extension dir, so an in-place build would keep the stale .so. The first rebuild also backs up the install-time build (the extension dir plus its lib/ copies) to <gem_dir>/.socket-patch-native-orig/.
• Marker: <gem_dir>/.socket-patch-native-build.json records the source hashes the build used and the hash of every artifact, including the lib/ copies. In testing, Ruby actually loaded the lib/ copy, not the one under extensions/.
• Failure: a build that fails puts the previous build and the original sources back: native_extension_build_failed, with the tail of the compiler output.
• Refusal: when the copy can't be rebuilt at all (no specifications/ entry, a precompiled platform gem, no matching Ruby), it is refused with native_extensions_unsupported and nothing is written. This also happens in --dry-run.
• Already patched: sources an earlier release patched without rebuilding get rebuilt, with a native_extension_rebuilt warning. A copy whose marker already matches is already_patched and nothing is rebuilt.
• VEX / apply --check: an installed gem copy with native inputs is attested only while its marker matches the record and every listed artifact. Otherwise it fails with native_extension_not_rebuilt. Hosted copies are unchanged.
• Rollback: after the sources are restored, the backup is put back, which needs no compiler. Without a backup, it rebuilds from the restored sources. If that fails: native_extension_restore_failed, with a gem pristine hint.

Codes are documented in CLI_CONTRACT.md (new "Ruby gems with native extensions in agent mode" section), and docs/ecosystems.md gets a "Ruby gems: native extensions" section.

Testing

• New tests/e2e_gem_native_ext_build.rs builds a real C-extension gem (SpNative.value goes from 1 to 2):
  • apply → Ruby loads 2 → --check clean → re-apply skipped → rollback → 1, marker and backup gone
  • sources patched without a rebuild → --check fails with native_extension_not_rebuilt → apply rebuilds
  • a patch that doesn't compile → everything put back, byte-identical
  • Hermetic, no Ruby needed: no Ruby on PATH → refused (dry run too); gem without extensions → refused; Ruby-only patch to a native gem → applies without Ruby; stale build → --check fails.
• The two compile capstones are #[ignore]d like the other Ruby suites and added to the Ruby 3.4 PR leg and the Ruby 3.1 e2e-full leg (SOCKET_PATCH_BUNDLER_E2E_REQUIRED makes a missing toolchain fail there).
• Unit tests cover gemspec parsing, classification, marker verification and backup restore.
• Manual check on the real json 2.10.2 gem (two extensions) on macOS/Ruby 3.4: patched parser.c → Ruby raises the patched error message, apply --check is clean (also after moving the project dir), and rollback restores the original message.
• Local: core lib 7126 passed, CLI lib 868 passed, plus e2e_gem, in_process_gem_apply, e2e_redirect_gem_stale_install, e2e_vex_redirect, help_text_hygiene and cli all pass. cargo fmt is clean, and clippy is clean on every touched file.

depscan and the patches harness

• depscan production paths are unaffected. Hosted serving (depscan#29554) and autopatch use hosted mode only, never agent-mode apply.
• The patches evaluation harness (Patchpedia) runs agent-mode apply on gems (apply --manifest-path … --global --global-prefix $GEM_HOME/gems --offline --force), then recompiles the extension itself, with era-specific fallbacks: DISABLE_SSL, an era OpenSSL, nokogiri port-archive restore. Its worker builds socket-patch from depscan's pinned submodule, so this change reaches it only on a pin bump.
• New --no-gem-native-rebuild / SOCKET_NO_GEM_NATIVE_REBUILD lets a caller that compiles the extension itself keep the old behavior: sources are written, no Ruby is run, and the run warns native_extension_not_rebuilt. Patchpedia can set the env var before the bump; the currently pinned binary ignores it.
• Replayed the harness flow in Debian bookworm with ruby-full (Ruby 3.1.2 / RubyGems 3.3.15, what the eval workers run) on the real json 2.10.2 gem, using a Linux build of this branch:
  • Default mode: apply alone makes the patched C code run; the harness recompile and the gem-shim re-apply on top still work; rollback restores the original.
  • Opt-out mode: sources are written, the old build stays loaded until the harness recompiles, then the patched code runs.
• Older Rubies:
  • The exact probe/build script also works on Ruby 2.1.10.
  • The script requires rubygems itself, since Ruby 1.8 doesn't load it and RUBYOPT is cleared.
  • RubyGems older than 2.2 (the harness's Ruby 1.8.2 rung, RubyGems 0.9.4) is refused by name.

Code review

/code-review high reported 10 findings. 9 are fixed in 73a7d0b:

• A planted backup could make rollback delete outside the gem. Only the gem's own extension dir is now replaced; regression test included.
• C files outside ext/ in a gem with no extensions are no longer refused.
• A root-level build script no longer makes every file a native input.
• A failed build-record write is now fully undone, so the error message is true.
• The Ruby/ABI check is no longer vacuous.
• Loaded libraries are no longer rewritten in place on restore.
• A build timeout now kills the whole process group.
• Stray probe output is tolerated.
• Duplicated helpers removed.

Not fixed: "apply now runs the gem's build scripts". That's inherent to rebuilding, and it's what gem install / bundle install already ran for that project.

Known limits

• A stale extension dir left by another Ruby ABI in the same gem home isn't rebuilt. RubyGems won't load a gem whose extension isn't built for the running Ruby, so it's normally unused.
• The build timeout is 30 min, since nokogiri's vendored libxml2 build takes minutes.
• A precompiled platform gem can't be fixed in agent mode, and hosted mode refuses it too (redirect_gem_platform_unsupported). The refusal message points at the ruby-platform gem.

🤖 Generated with Claude Code