Re: Geronimo JVM Configuration Portlet

[Paul McMahan]

I definitely like the idea of adding this type of functionality to the admin console.  A section of setenv.sh/bat could be designated to JVM variables settable via the admin console.  And by surrounding that section with proper annotation we could probably avoid confusing the user as to what gets set by whom and when.   However, my spidey sense starts tingling when I think about accepting input from outside the machine (and potentially outside the firewall) that is placed directly into an script that may be executed with root/admin privileges.  No matter how carefully we sanitize the input some clever person may figure out some new fangled way to sneak a newline through or some such mischief.  Perhaps there is a way to change (at least some of) the properties of the JVM *after* it has been executed from the command line?  But now we're back to allowing properties to be set in two places again, doh!  :-)

Best wishes,
Paul

On 1/18/06, John Sisson < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

The geronimo.sh/bat startup script will execute a setenv.sh/bat file if
it is present.  See the comments at the bottom of the comment header for
geronimo.sh/bat.

For example, the setenv.sh/bat files can set the GERONIMO_OPTS
environment variable to change the JVM options.

We would want to avoid having two places that JVM options are configured
as that would be confusing and make Geronimo more difficult to support.

Maybe the console could have a page that allows you to add/update/delete
environment variables, which results in the appropriate modifications to
the setenv.sh and setenv.bat files.  It would need to be careful with
updating/deleting environment variables, as a user may have inserted
some logic in the script before the environment variable is set (or the
environment variable could be in a number of places in the script due to
logic).  Maybe the console would need to detect whether the script has
anything other than the simple setting of environment variables and if
so, prevents you from editing it from the console.

It would be interesting to hear from others whether they think it is a
security issue allowing the console to edit bat/sh startup script files
(could malicious commands be inserted into the startup scripts).

John