child_process: ensure message sanity at source

Error messages coming out of de-serialization at the send target
is not consumable. So detect the scenario and fix it at the send source

Ref: nodejs#20314

PR-URL: nodejs#24787
Reviewed-By: Luigi Pinca <luigipinca@gmail.com>

lib/internal/child_process.js

@@ -665,6 +665,18 @@ function setupChannel(target, channel) {
     if (message === undefined)
       throw new ERR_MISSING_ARGS('message');
 
+    // Non-serializable messages should not reach the remote
+    // end point; as any failure in the stringification there
+    // will result in error message that is weakly consumable.
+    // So perform a sanity check on message prior to sending.
+    if (typeof message !== 'string' &&
+        typeof message !== 'object' &&
+        typeof message !== 'number' &&
+        typeof message !== 'boolean') {
+      throw new ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE(
+        'message', ['string', 'object', 'number', 'boolean'], message);
+    }
+
     // Support legacy function signature
     if (typeof options === 'boolean') {
       options = { swallowErrors: options };

test/parallel/test-child-process-fork.js

@@ -49,6 +49,12 @@ assert.throws(() => n.send(), {
   code: 'ERR_MISSING_ARGS'
 });
 
+assert.throws(() => n.send(Symbol()), {
+  name: 'TypeError [ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE]',
+  message: 'The "message" argument must be one of type string,' +
+           ' object, number, or boolean. Received type symbol',
+  code: 'ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE'
+});
 n.send({ hello: 'world' });
 
 n.on('exit', common.mustCall((c) => {