first draft

Author: fridrik01

FIPS/fip-actor-upgrades.md

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+---
+fip: "<to be assigned>" <!--keep the qoutes around the fip number, i.e: `fip: "0001"`-->
+title: Add support for upgradable actors
+author: Fridrik Asmundsson (@fridrik01), Steven Allen (@stebalien)
+discussions-to: https://github.com/filecoin-project/FIPs/discussions/396
+status: Draft
+type: Technical Core
+created: 2023-11-27
+---
+
+## Simple Summary
+
+This FIP introduces support for upgradable actors, enabling deployed actors to update their code while retaining their address, state, and balance.
+
+## Abstract
+
+This FIP proposes the integration of upgradable actors into the Filecoin network through the introduction of a new `upgrade_actor` syscall and an optional `upgrade` WebAssembly (WASM) entrypoint.
+
+Upgradable actors provide a framework for seamlessly replacing deployed actor code, significantly enhancing the user experience when updating deployed actor code.
+
+## Change Motivation
+
+Currently, all actors on the Filecoin Network are immutable once deployed. To modify the underlying actor code, such as fixing a security bug, the following steps are required:
+1. Deploy a new actor with the corrected code.
+2. Migrate all state from the previous actor to the new one.
+3. Update all other actors interacting with the old actor to use the new actor.
+
+By adding support for upgradable actors, deployed actors can easily upgrade their code and no longer need to go through the series of steps mentioned above.
+
+This also simplifies the upgrade process for builtin actors. Currently, any changes made to the builtin actors require a network upgrade, a new Lotus version, and collaboration with the network to push the new version to production. This is a time consuming and manual process. However, with upgradable actors, we can instead deploy a new code to the builtin actors allowing the changes to be pushed to production almost instantly and does not require a new network upgrade or new Lotus version.
+
+## Specification
+
+Introducing support for actor upgrades involves the following changes to the FVM:
+
+1. Adding a new `upgrade` WASM entrypoint, which actors must implement in order to be a valid upgrade target.
+2. Adding a new `upgrade_actor` syscall, enabling actors to upgrade themselves.
+
+These changes are discussed in detail in the following sections.
+
+### New upgrade WASM Entrypoint
+
+We introduce a new optional `upgrade` WASM entrypoint. Deployed actors must implement this entrypoint to be a valid upgrade target. It is defined as follows:
+
+```rust
+pub fn upgrade(params_id: u32, upgrade_info_id: u32) -> u32
+```
+
+Parameters:
+- `params_id`: An IPLD block handle provided by the caller and sent to the upgrade receiver, or `0` for none.
+- `upgrade_info_id`: An IPLD block handle for an `UpgradeInfo` struct provided by the FVM runtime (defined below).
+
+The single `u32` return value is an IPLD block handle, or `0` for none.
+
+The `UpgradeInfo` struct is defined as follows:
+
+```rust
+#[derive(Clone, Debug, Copy, PartialEq, Eq, Serialize_tuple, Deserialize_tuple)]
+pub struct UpgradeInfo {
+    // the old code cid we are upgrading from
+    pub old_code_cid: Cid,
+}
+```
+
+When a target actor's `upgrade` WASM entrypoint is called, it can make necessary state tree changes from the calling if needed to its actor code. The `UpgradeInfo` struct provided by the FVM runtime can be used to check what code CID its upgrading from. A successful return from the `upgrade` entrypoint instructs the FVM that it should proceed with the upgrade. The target actor can reject the upgrade by calling `sdk::vm::exit()`` before returning from the upgrade entrypoint.
+
+### New upgrade_actor syscall
+
+We introduce a new `upgrade_actor` syscall which calls the `upgrade` wasm entrypoint of the calling actor and then atomically replaces the code CID of the calling actor with the provided code CID. It is defined as follows:
+
+```rust
+pub fn upgrade_actor(
+    new_code_cid_off: *const u8,
+    params: u32,
+) -> Result<Send>;
+```
+
+Parameters:
+- `new_code_cid_off`: The code CID the calling actor should be replaced with.
+- `params`: The IPLD block handle passed, or `0` for none.
+
+On successful upgrade, this syscall will not return. Instead, the current invocation will "complete" and the return value will be the block returned by the new code's `upgrade` endpoint. If the new code rejects the upgrade (calls `sdk::vm::exit()`) or performs an illegal operation, this syscall will return the exit code plus the error returned by the upgrade endpoint.
+
+This syscall will:
+1. Validate that the pointers passed to the syscall are in-bounds.
+2. Validate that `new_code_cid_off` is a valid code CID.
+3. Validate that the calling actor is not currently executing in "read-only" mode. If so, the syscall fails with a "ReadOnly" (13) syscall error.
+4. Checks whether the calling actor is already on the call stack where it has previously been called on its `invoke` entrypoint (note that we allow calling `upgrade` recursively). If so, the syscall fails with a "Forbidden" (11) syscall error.
+5. Checks that we have space for storing the return block. If not, the syscall fails with a "LimitExceeded" (3) syscall error.
+6. Start a new Call Manager transaction:
+    1. Validate that the calling actor has not been deleted. If so, the syscall fails with a "IllegalOperation" (2) syscall error.
+    2. Update the actor in the state tree with the new `new_code_cid` keeping the same `state`, `sequence` and `balance`.
+    3. Invoke the target actor's `upgrade` entrypoint.
+    4. If the target actor does not implement the `upgrade` entrypoint, then return the syscall fails with a `ExitCode::SYS_INVALID_RECEIVER` exit code.
+    5. If the target actor aborts the `upgrade` entrypoint by calling `sdk::vm::exit()`, the syscall fails with the provided exit code.
+7. Apply transaction, committing changes.
+8. Abort the calling actor and return the IPLD block from the `upgrade` entrypoint.
+
+## Design Rationale
+
+### Additional metadata syscall
+
+We considered adding a new `get_old_code_cid` syscall to get the calling actors code CID. That has the benefit of keeping the `upgrade` entrypoint signature consistent with the `invoke` signature. We however rejected that as we felt the benefit didn't outweight the overhead of adding a new syscall. Furthermore, it did not provide the flexibility of passing in a IPLD handle for a `UpgradeInfo` struct where we can easily add more fields if required.
+
+## Backwards Compatibility
+
+Fully backwards compatibility is expected.
+
+## Test Cases
+
+Detailed test cases are provided with the implementation.
+
+## Security Considerations
+
+Upgradable actors pose potential security risks, as users can replace deployed actors' code. However, measures are in place to minimize these risks:
+
+- Upgradable actors are opt-in by default, ensuring no impact on currently deployed actors.
+- Actors can only upgrade themselves, preventing one actor from upgrading another actor to a new version.
+- We reject re-entrant `upgrade_actor` syscalls, i.e., if some actor `A` is already on the call stack, no "deeper" instance of `A` should be able to call the upgrade syscall.
+
+Detailed tests cover these security considerations and edge cases.
+
+## Incentive Considerations
+
+This FIP does not materially impact incentives in any way.
+
+## Product Considerations
+
+This FIP makes it possible to upgrade deployed actors, for example in cases where a bug or security concern was identified in the deployed code, allowing a simple safe way to addres such issues which significantly improves the user experience from how it is today.
+
+## Implementation
+
+https://github.com/filecoin-project/ref-fvm/pull/1866
+
+## TODO
+
+N/A
+
+## Copyright
+
+Copyright and related rights waived via [CC0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).