Fuzzing Crash: FilterArray does not support serialization

[github-actions]

Fuzzing Crash Report

Analysis

Crash Location: vortex-array/src/serde.rs:170 in the ArrayNodeFlatBuffer::try_new function

Error Message:

file write should succeed in fuzz test:
  Array vortex.filter does not support serialization

Stack Trace:

   0: std::backtrace_rs::backtrace::libunwind::trace
   1: std::backtrace_rs::backtrace::trace_unsynchronized
   2: <std::backtrace::Backtrace>::create
   3: try_new at ./vortex-array/src/serde.rs:170:17
   4: serialize at ./vortex-array/src/serde.rs:121:20
   5: {async_block#0} at ./vortex-layout/src/layouts/flat/writer.rs:126:29
   6: poll
   7: {async_block#0} at ./vortex-layout/src/layouts/chunked/writer.rs:79:26

Root Cause:

The fuzzer discovered that FilterArray (encoding ID: vortex.filter) explicitly does not support serialization. When attempting to write an array containing a FilterArray to a file, the serialization check at vortex-array/src/serde.rs:168-174 fails:

for child in array.depth_first_traversal() {
    if child.metadata()?.is_none() {
        vortex_bail!(
            "Array {} does not support serialization",
            child.encoding_id()
        );
    }
}

Looking at vortex-array/src/arrays/filter/vtable.rs:70-72, FilterArray's serialization method explicitly returns None:

fn serialize(_metadata: Self::Metadata) -> VortexResult<Option<Vec<u8>>> {
    Ok(None)
}

And the deserialize method at line 74-76 bails:

fn deserialize(_bytes: &[u8]) -> VortexResult<Self::Metadata> {
    vortex_bail!("Filter array is not serializable")
}

Array Structure:

• ChunkedArray with dtype I8 Nullable, length 16
• 2 primitive chunks (lengths 15 and 1)
• All validity is either AllInvalid or AllValid
• No projection or filter expressions applied

Impact: FilterArray is an internal/transient array type that should be executed/canonicalized before serialization. The fuzzer exposed a code path where a FilterArray reaches the serialization layer without being executed first.

Debug Output

FuzzFileAction {
    array: ChunkedArray {
        dtype: Primitive(
            I8,
            Nullable,
        ),
        len: 16,
        chunk_offsets: PrimitiveArray {
            dtype: Primitive(
                U64,
                NonNullable,
            ),
            buffer: BufferHandle(
                Host(
                    Buffer<u8> {
                        length: 24,
                        alignment: Alignment(
                            8,
                        ),
                        as_slice: [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 15, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, ...],
                    },
                ),
            ),
            validity: NonNullable,
            stats_set: ArrayStats {
                inner: RwLock {
                    data: StatsSet {
                        values: [],
                    },
                },
            },
        },
        chunks: [
            PrimitiveArray {
                dtype: Primitive(
                    I8,
                    Nullable,
                ),
                buffer: BufferHandle(
                    Host(
                        Buffer<u8> {
                            length: 15,
                            alignment: Alignment(
                                1,
                            ),
                            as_slice: [255, 109, 109, 109, 109, 255, 109, 102, 109, 109, 109, 37, 4, 157, 85],
                        },
                    ),
                ),
                validity: AllInvalid,
                stats_set: ArrayStats {
                    inner: RwLock {
                        data: StatsSet {
                            values: [],
                        },
                    },
                },
            },
            PrimitiveArray {
                dtype: Primitive(
                    I8,
                    Nullable,
                ),
                buffer: BufferHandle(
                    Host(
                        Buffer<u8> {
                            length: 1,
                            alignment: Alignment(
                                1,
                            ),
                            as_slice: [85],
                        },
                    ),
                ),
                validity: AllValid,
                stats_set: ArrayStats {
                    inner: RwLock {
                        data: StatsSet {
                            values: [],
                        },
                    },
                },
            },
        ],
        stats_set: ArrayStats {
            inner: RwLock {
                data: StatsSet {
                    values: [],
                },
            },
        },
    },
    projection_expr: None,
    filter_expr: None,
    compressor_strategy: Default,
}

Summary

• Target: file_io
• Crash File: crash-552031aaf3fcdc9b7100eefa4eb7bb476c23f38f
• Branch: develop
• Commit: d70a1e9
• Crash Artifact: https://github.com/vortex-data/vortex/actions/runs/21412350933/artifacts/5278275425

Reproduction

1. Download the crash artifact:

   • Direct download: https://github.com/vortex-data/vortex/actions/runs/21412350933/artifacts/5278275425
   • Or find file_io-crash-artifacts at: https://github.com/vortex-data/vortex/actions/runs/21412350933
   • Extract the zip file

2. Reproduce locally:

# The artifact contains file_io/crash-552031aaf3fcdc9b7100eefa4eb7bb476c23f38f
cargo +nightly fuzz run -D --sanitizer=none file_io file_io/crash-552031aaf3fcdc9b7100eefa4eb7bb476c23f38f -- -rss_limit_mb=0

3. Get full backtrace:

RUST_BACKTRACE=full cargo +nightly fuzz run -D --sanitizer=none file_io file_io/crash-552031aaf3fcdc9b7100eefa4eb7bb476c23f38f -- -rss_limit_mb=0

---

Auto-created by fuzzing workflow with Claude analysis

[connortsui20]

This is (temporarily) fixed by #6194