Middle-End protocol hardening

- Secure framing / hot-path fix: enforced a single length + padding contract across the framing layer. Replaced legacy runtime `len % 4` recovery with strict validation to eliminate undefined behavior paths.

- ME RPC aligned with C reference contract: handshake now includes `flags + sender_pid + peer_pid`. Added negotiated CRC mode (CRC32 / CRC32C) and applied the negotiated mode consistently in read/write paths.

- Sequence fail-fast semantics: immediate connection termination on first sequence mismatch with dedicated counter increment.

- Keepalive reworked to RPC ping/pong: removed raw CBC keepalive frames. Introduced stale ping tracker with proper timeout accounting.

- Route/backpressure observability improvements: increased per-connection route queue to 4096. Added `RouteResult` with explicit failure reasons (NoConn, ChannelClosed, QueueFull) and per-reason counters.

- Direct-DC secure mode-gate relaxation: removed TLS/secure conflict in Direct-DC handshake path.

src/transport/middle_proxy/codec.rs

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 use tokio::io::{AsyncReadExt, AsyncWriteExt};
 
-use crate::crypto::{AesCbc, crc32};
+use crate::crypto::{AesCbc, crc32, crc32c};
 use crate::error::{ProxyError, Result};
 use crate::protocol::constants::*;
 
@@ -8,17 +8,46 @@ use crate::protocol::constants::*;
 pub(crate) enum WriterCommand {
     Data(Vec<u8>),
     DataAndFlush(Vec<u8>),
-    Keepalive,
     Close,
 }
 
-pub(crate) fn build_rpc_frame(seq_no: i32, payload: &[u8]) -> Vec<u8> {
+#[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy, PartialEq, Eq)]
+pub(crate) enum RpcChecksumMode {
+    Crc32,
+    Crc32c,
+}
+
+impl RpcChecksumMode {
+    pub(crate) fn from_handshake_flags(flags: u32) -> Self {
+        if (flags & rpc_crypto_flags::USE_CRC32C) != 0 {
+            Self::Crc32c
+        } else {
+            Self::Crc32
+        }
+    }
+
+    pub(crate) fn advertised_flags(self) -> u32 {
+        match self {
+            Self::Crc32 => 0,
+            Self::Crc32c => rpc_crypto_flags::USE_CRC32C,
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+pub(crate) fn rpc_crc(mode: RpcChecksumMode, data: &[u8]) -> u32 {
+    match mode {
+        RpcChecksumMode::Crc32 => crc32(data),
+        RpcChecksumMode::Crc32c => crc32c(data),
+    }
+}
+
+pub(crate) fn build_rpc_frame(seq_no: i32, payload: &[u8], crc_mode: RpcChecksumMode) -> Vec<u8> {
     let total_len = (4 + 4 + payload.len() + 4) as u32;
     let mut frame = Vec::with_capacity(total_len as usize);
     frame.extend_from_slice(&total_len.to_le_bytes());
     frame.extend_from_slice(&seq_no.to_le_bytes());
     frame.extend_from_slice(payload);
-    let c = crc32(&frame);
+    let c = rpc_crc(crc_mode, &frame);
     frame.extend_from_slice(&c.to_le_bytes());
     frame
 }
@@ -45,7 +74,7 @@ pub(crate) async fn read_rpc_frame_plaintext(
 
     let crc_offset = total_len - 4;
     let expected_crc = u32::from_le_bytes(full[crc_offset..crc_offset + 4].try_into().unwrap());
-    let actual_crc = crc32(&full[..crc_offset]);
+    let actual_crc = rpc_crc(RpcChecksumMode::Crc32, &full[..crc_offset]);
     if expected_crc != actual_crc {
         return Err(ProxyError::InvalidHandshake(format!(
             "CRC mismatch: 0x{expected_crc:08x} vs 0x{actual_crc:08x}"
@@ -95,24 +124,52 @@ pub(crate) fn build_handshake_payload(
     our_port: u16,
     peer_ip: [u8; 4],
     peer_port: u16,
+    flags: u32,
 ) -> [u8; 32] {
     let mut p = [0u8; 32];
     p[0..4].copy_from_slice(&RPC_HANDSHAKE_U32.to_le_bytes());
+    p[4..8].copy_from_slice(&flags.to_le_bytes());
 
-    // Keep C memory layout compatibility for PID IPv4 bytes.
+    // process_id sender_pid
     p[8..12].copy_from_slice(&our_ip);
     p[12..14].copy_from_slice(&our_port.to_le_bytes());
-    let pid = (std::process::id() & 0xffff) as u16;
-    p[14..16].copy_from_slice(&pid.to_le_bytes());
+    p[14..16].copy_from_slice(&process_pid16().to_le_bytes());
+    p[16..20].copy_from_slice(&process_utime().to_le_bytes());
+
+    // process_id peer_pid
+    p[20..24].copy_from_slice(&peer_ip);
+    p[24..26].copy_from_slice(&peer_port.to_le_bytes());
+    p[26..28].copy_from_slice(&0u16.to_le_bytes());
+    p[28..32].copy_from_slice(&0u32.to_le_bytes());
+    p
+}
+
+pub(crate) fn parse_handshake_flags(payload: &[u8]) -> Result<u32> {
+    if payload.len() != 32 {
+        return Err(ProxyError::InvalidHandshake(format!(
+            "Bad handshake payload len: {}",
+            payload.len()
+        )));
+    }
+    let hs_type = u32::from_le_bytes(payload[0..4].try_into().unwrap());
+    if hs_type != RPC_HANDSHAKE_U32 {
+        return Err(ProxyError::InvalidHandshake(format!(
+            "Expected HANDSHAKE 0x{RPC_HANDSHAKE_U32:08x}, got 0x{hs_type:08x}"
+        )));
+    }
+    Ok(u32::from_le_bytes(payload[4..8].try_into().unwrap()))
+}
+
+fn process_pid16() -> u16 {
+    (std::process::id() & 0xffff) as u16
+}
+
+fn process_utime() -> u32 {
     let utime = std::time::SystemTime::now()
         .duration_since(std::time::UNIX_EPOCH)
         .unwrap_or_default()
         .as_secs() as u32;
-    p[16..20].copy_from_slice(&utime.to_le_bytes());
-
-    p[20..24].copy_from_slice(&peer_ip);
-    p[24..26].copy_from_slice(&peer_port.to_le_bytes());
-    p
+    utime
 }
 
 pub(crate) fn cbc_encrypt_padded(
@@ -160,11 +217,12 @@ pub(crate) struct RpcWriter {
     pub(crate) key: [u8; 32],
     pub(crate) iv: [u8; 16],
     pub(crate) seq_no: i32,
+    pub(crate) crc_mode: RpcChecksumMode,
 }
 
 impl RpcWriter {
     pub(crate) async fn send(&mut self, payload: &[u8]) -> Result<()> {
-        let frame = build_rpc_frame(self.seq_no, payload);
+        let frame = build_rpc_frame(self.seq_no, payload, self.crc_mode);
         self.seq_no += 1;
 
         let pad = (16 - (frame.len() % 16)) % 16;
@@ -189,27 +247,4 @@ impl RpcWriter {
         self.send(payload).await?;
         self.writer.flush().await.map_err(ProxyError::Io)
     }
-
-    /// Sends a 4-byte keepalive marker directly into the CBC stream.
-    /// This is not an RPC frame and must not consume sequence numbers.
-    pub(crate) async fn send_keepalive(&mut self) -> Result<()> {
-        let mut buf = [0u8; 16];
-        for i in 0..4 {
-            let start = i * 4;
-            let end = start + 4;
-            buf[start..end].copy_from_slice(&PADDING_FILLER);
-        }
-
-        let cipher = AesCbc::new(self.key, self.iv);
-        let mut v = buf.to_vec();
-        cipher
-            .encrypt_in_place(&mut v)
-            .map_err(|e| ProxyError::Crypto(format!("{e}")))?;
-
-        if v.len() >= 16 {
-            self.iv.copy_from_slice(&v[v.len() - 16..]);
-        }
-        self.writer.write_all(&v).await.map_err(ProxyError::Io)?;
-        self.writer.flush().await.map_err(ProxyError::Io)
-    }
 }