On Tue, Jun 9, 2009 at 10:57 PM, Cristian
Ionescu-Idbohrn<[email protected]> wrote:
> On Tue, 9 Jun 2009, Denys Vlasenko wrote:
>
>> Yes. It's logical. cp *copies files*. IOW: it *creates a copy
>> of an existing file*. Copy of a file should be a file.
>>
>> In this light,
>>
>> cp file symlink - should not write into linked file
>> cp file device  - should not send file's bytes into the device
>
> So, what you're saying is that you're in disagreement with gnu & co. Is
> that correct?

I am not entirely sure that I am right doing do,
but in this case it's ugly enough that I do disagree.

What do you think? Is it causing compat problems in real life?

>> What if malicious Joe created /home/joe/dissertation.htm symlink
>> pointing to /etc/shadow? Or to /dev/sda1?
>
> But of course.  Symlink attacks were not discovered yesterday.  We keep
> getting daily (security) tips on how to keep away from them.  Still...

My point, being careful in running, for example, sed .... -i FILE
and taking care that FILE is not replaced by a malicious symlink,
is understandable. root usually doesn't do that in /home/joe anyway.

But when root can't *just copy* a bunch of files to Joe's dir
without having nightmares about bad boy Joe is... stupid.
How is root supposed to do such a thing safely then??

cp *can* take care of this. Why it does not?

> Now how do we preach the gospel to the non-believers?  POSIX and gnu
> folks?  My collegues.  Are Denys and Cristian the true prophets? ;-)

If people will convince me that this is a real problem for them,
I will change it. If it's just a crusade for standards...
--
vda
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