perf(decrypt): fail-fast on session-record errors to clear pipeline backpressure

PRODUCTION BUG (still present after PR #396): inbound messages from the
smartphone take ~60s to surface in the consumer (zpro). PR #396 fixed the
PN/LID lock-vs-storage drift but did NOT clear the latency. Diff against the
known-good Pedro snapshot pinpointed the residual cause: this retry wrapper.

ROOT CAUSE:
`DECRYPTION_RETRY_OPTIONS.shouldRetry` retries 3× with exponential backoff
(200 ms → 400 ms → 800 ms ≈ 1.4 s per failed message) on
`'No matching sessions found'` and friends. After WhatsApp's LID/DSM rollout
own DSM messages flood in for sessions stored under the legacy `_1.0` format
that no longer matches the LID-addressed envelope, so EVERY DSM hits this
path. At ~30 DSM/min the accumulated backoff is ~42 s — enough to block
real-contact messages from reaching the buffer flush.

The Pedro snapshot (Feb 6 2026, 484 commits behind, confirmed fast in prod
on the same auth state) has NO retry wrapper at all: try once → fail → send
retry receipt → phone re-sends as `pkmsg` → fresh session → next message
decrypts cleanly. Total recovery ~300 ms, no pipeline backpressure.

WHY THE RETRIES WERE USELESS:
1. libsignal already scanned every stored session for the JID before throwing
   `No matching sessions found`. Re-running the same lookup 200 ms later
   gives the same answer — no new session record materialises in that window.
2. Bad MAC / counter errors mean the keys are simply wrong; retry doesn't
   regenerate keys. (This branch was already correctly returning false.)

THIS PATCH:
- `sessionRecordErrors` now also returns `false` from `shouldRetry` (matches
  the existing `corruptedSessionErrors` policy).
- Unknown errors retry exactly once (was twice) — quick blip recovery only.
- `maxAttempts` lowered to 2 to match.
- Big block comment captures the rationale so the next person doesn't add
  retries back hoping it'll help.

Recovery still happens — just upstream, via the retry-receipt → pkmsg flow,
which is what WhatsApp protocol intends and what Pedro's working snapshot
relies on.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
Renato Alcara
2026-04-29 01:22:10 -03:00
parent bb78f61c6a
commit 56ca70bd75
+38 -12
View File
@@ -67,33 +67,59 @@ export const DECRYPTION_RETRY_CONFIG = {
}
/**
* Retry options for decryption operations
* Uses exponential backoff with jitter to handle transient failures
* Retry options for decryption operations.
*
* IMPORTANT — fail-fast policy for decryption:
* Both `sessionRecordErrors` ('No matching sessions found', etc.) and
* `corruptedSessionErrors` ('Bad MAC', 'MessageCounterError', missing keys)
* return `false` from `shouldRetry`. Rationale:
*
* 1. libsignal already scanned ALL stored sessions for the JID before
* throwing — retrying immediately gives the SAME result (no new session
* record materialises in the 200-800ms backoff window).
* 2. The real recovery flow is upstream: failed decrypt → retry receipt to
* WA → phone re-sends as `pkmsg` → libsignal builds a fresh session →
* next message decrypts cleanly. That handshake takes ~300ms total.
* 3. Wrapping decrypt in 3 attempts × exponential backoff (200ms→400ms→800ms
* ≈ 1.4 s per failed message) just blocks the inbound buffer pipeline. At
* the rate own DSM messages flood in after a LID/PN mismatch, this
* compounds to tens of seconds of accumulated delay before live messages
* from real contacts can even reach the consumer.
*
* Only truly *unknown* errors get a single retry — those might be transient
* (network blip, unexpected exception) and a quick 200ms retry is cheap.
*
* If we ever need transient-error retries again (e.g. the storage layer adds
* an async race that benefits from re-reading), set `sessionRecordErrors` to
* `attempt < 1` here, NOT `attempt < 3` — one extra read at most.
*/
export const DECRYPTION_RETRY_OPTIONS: RetryOptions = {
maxAttempts: 3,
baseDelay: 200, // 200ms base delay
maxDelay: 2000, // 2s max delay
maxAttempts: 2,
baseDelay: 200, // 200ms base delay (only used for unknown errors below)
maxDelay: 2000,
backoffStrategy: 'exponential',
backoffMultiplier: 2,
jitter: 0.2, // 20% jitter
collectMetrics: false, // No Prometheus metrics
jitter: 0.2,
collectMetrics: false,
operationName: 'message_decryption',
shouldRetry: (error: Error, attempt: number) => {
const errorMsg = error?.message || ''
// Always retry on session record errors (session might be syncing)
// Session record errors: libsignal already exhausted all stored sessions.
// Retrying immediately gives the same result; the real recovery path
// is the upstream retry-receipt → pkmsg flow. Fail fast.
if (DECRYPTION_RETRY_CONFIG.sessionRecordErrors.some(err => errorMsg.includes(err))) {
return attempt < 3 // Retry up to 3 times
return false
}
// Don't retry on corrupted session errors (need cleanup first)
// Corrupted session errors: Bad MAC / counter errors. Same reasoning —
// the keys are wrong and won't right themselves on retry.
if (DECRYPTION_RETRY_CONFIG.corruptedSessionErrors.some(err => errorMsg.includes(err))) {
return false
}
// Retry other transient errors
return attempt < 2 // Retry up to 2 times for unknown errors
// Unknown errors: one retry in case it was a transient blip.
return attempt < 1
}
}