Re: uudecode bug (?)

[martin f krafft]

also sprach Santiago Vila <address@hidden> [2002.06.10.1341 +0200]:
> http://www.aerasec.de/security/index.html?lang=en&id=ae-200205-037
> 
> Well, this is Unix, and the user is supposed to know what he/she is doing.
> Not checking for a symlink or a pipe does not make uudecode more
> dangerous than it is *already*. A uuencoded .profile is already
> dangerous enough, for example.

i fully agree with you. nevertheless, we're also dealing with a race
condition here. there are millions of cycles between me `ls` checking
for a file that already exists, and uudecode actually fopen()ing the
file for 'w' mode. if a file exists and it's overwritten, then no
biggie, but a symlink or pipe do not really represent anything to be
overwritten and are thus dangerous, i find.

at least, uudecode should notify the person and ask for confirmation.
again: this only applies to symlinks and pipes. if uudecode truncates
a file as it's unpacking, that's totally fine.

my 2 pfennige (damn euro!)

-- 
martin;              (greetings from the heart of the sun.)
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laugh alone and the world thinks you're an idiot.

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