Re: temp file creation bug in diffutils 2.7

[Paul Eggert]

> Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2000 05:21:55 +0300
> From: Solar Designer <address@hidden>
> 
> This is DoS'able

I suppose you're right.

I'll rewrite it to use mkstemp, and write a substitute mkstemp for
hosts that don't have it.  What a pain.  (And for code that is never
used -- it's only there to keep POSIX happy.  Sigh.)  Too bad the
glibc mkstemp isn't portable.

> Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2000 02:34:49 +0000 (GMT)
> From: Alan Cox <address@hidden>
> 
> > Ancient hosts without proper O_EXCL support can be used safely if all
> > users trust each other.  I don't see the point of refusing to support
> > such environments.  The patch is safe on all modern hosts.
> 
> The reason to at least warn people is that the operators of such an
> environment are not likely to be aware that the FSF is shipping
> dangerous insecure code unless it errors.

I doubt whether any of those ancient hosts are GNU porting targets any
more.  But rather than continue to worry about this issue, I'll have
my substitute mkstemp use O_EXCL instead of creat.  This is safe.  It
won't be portable to ancient hosts, but it will be portable to older
hosts that have O_EXCL but not mkstemp, and some of those hosts may
still be porting targets.