Incorrect parsing of /proc/pid/stat in Apport

Apport checks if the process was replaced after the crash by comparing between two variables, apport_start and process_start.

process_start gets the start time of the process by parsing the content of /proc/pid/stat file.

The start time is extracted from the 22 column of the /proc/pid/stat file.

def get_starttime(contents):
    '''Extracts the starttime from the contents of a stat file'''

    # 22nd field in a stat file is the time the process started after
    # system boot in clock ticks.
    return int(contents.split()[21])

We are able to bypass this check by recycle the pid with a process with “ “(space) in its filename, causing process_start to have the wrong value (which is smaller than apport_start).