Kerberos crashes when used on RHEL8 with Node.js 18+ because the RHEL8 version of Kerberos links against the system OpenSSL 1.1, while Node.js 18+ comes with OpenSSL 3 by default and the respective symbols end up conflicting with each other.

A workaround is to install kerberos via env GYP_DEFINES=kerberos_use_rtld=true npm install kerberos --build-from-source.

A potential solution could be to enable the kerberos_use_rtld=true flag by default.

Example reports:

• MONGOSH-1628
• https://github.com/mongodb-js/kerberos/pull/172#issuecomment-2207020333
• https://mongodb.slack.com/archives/C0V8RU15L/p1717024362566649

Use Case

As a... RHEL8 user
I want... my kerberos addon not to crash when using Node.js 18+
So that... I can keep using kerberos

User Impact

kerberos flat out crashes.

Dependencies

Shouldn't have any. (NODE-5746 already enabled us to fix this for mongosh; I was wrong to assume that this wouldn't impact regular Node.js usage where the addon is a dynamic/shared library rather than statically linked).

Unknowns

• questions that need to be answered to determine implementation

Acceptance Criteria

Implementation Requirements

• functional reqs, potential snafus to avoid, performance targets, etc

Testing Requirements

• unit test, spec test sync, etc

Documentation Requirements

• DOCSP ticket, API docs, etc

Follow Up Requirements

• additional tickets to file, required releases, etc