Re: When to call CheckCopiedFile() ?

[Mark . Burgess]

This would cause other problems. For now, the file might
be momentarily inaccessible, but it should never be too
accessible. Cfagent errs on the side of caution.
Must alsi remember to check the permissions on files
that have already been copied.

M

On 17 Dec, address@hidden wrote:
> Currently (2.1.0p1) cfengine copies regular files in CopyReg(), then
> adjusts their ownership, mode bits, ACLs, etc in CheckCopiedFile()
> which is little more than a wrapper around CheckExistingFile().
> 
> CopyReg() makes no attempt to set the new file's ownership and
> permissions to their final values before rename()ing it into place.
> As a result, there is a time window in which a newly copied file will
> have the wrong permissions.
> 
> I propose to call CheckCopiedFile() from within CopyReg(), just before
> the rename(new,dest) call.
> 
> There may be an impact on disk quota (since the new file's ownership is
> set before the old version is deleted), but I think that's less of a
> problem than allowing the file to have the wrong permissions.
> 
> I note in passing a couple of other issues in CopyReg() related to the
> handling of the backup file:
> 
> 1. potential buffer overflows in forming the name of the backup file,
>    particularly when IMAGEBACKUP == 's'. Could be regarded as a
>    documentation issue ("Don't use very long destination file names"---
>    "Yes, but just how long is too long?"). But why doesn't cfengine
>    use strlcat() (or at least strncat()) throughout?
> 2. rename(backup,dest) is attempted unconditionally, even when
>    IMAGEBACKUP == 'n' (in which case the backup variable is undefined).
> 3. Wouldn't it be better to perform the sanity checks (size, checksum)
>    on the new file first, and only back up/remove the old file if they
>    succeed ?
> 
> Patches will follow shortly.
> 
> 
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