[Kst] Kst 2.0 Install and Settings locations

[Matthew D Truch]

> On the whole, sounds like a good plan to me, Mike (with Matt's DESTDIR
> addition).  Can the temporary library search paths included in the
> binaries' RPATH (ie. the ones needed to run kst from the build location)
> be stripped upon install?  If not, and if the builder is foolhardy
> enough to build kst in a world writable location (say /tmp), doesn't
> this turn kst into a Trojan?  ie. a malicious user will be able to
> execute arbitrary code as the user running kst by creating a custom
> library with the name of a libary used by kst (say libc) in the
> world-writable temporary build location.
> 
> There are a number of work-arounds for this problem, none without
> problems themselves.  libtool relinks binaries on install and has funny
> little shell scripts to get them to work in-place (probably doesn't work
> on Windows.)  Another option is to have an "installable" build target
> different from the default, which doesn't add these extra RPATHs but
> can't be executed in-place.
> 
> I'm not suggesting kst not be executable from the build location, just
> pointing out the security implications.  If nothing else, I'd at least
> insert a note into the README (or whatever) indicating that kst shouldn't
> be built in a directory which could be re-created by an arbitrary user.

Huh.  I didn't even think about that.  It would be best if there were an
option to strip out the RPATHs.  Fedora packaging requirements require
it (because the buildsystems virtually all generate (build) packages in
subdirectories of /tmp that Don's fictitious malicious users could
abuse).  

-- 
"All your base are belong to us!"
--------------------------
Matthew Truch
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of Pennsylvania
matt at truch.net
http://matt.truch.net/
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