Re: Gnumeric/Guile/Python

["Tuomas J. Lukka" <lukka fas harvard edu>]

On Tue, 25 May 1999, Miguel de Icaza wrote:

> 
> > > No, there is no way to do this.  And for now I have no plans on doing
> > > this.  Until we fully understand the implications of potential viruses 
> > > transmited by this medium, I do think this is not a good idea.
> > 
> > If guile or python code is limited to changing the current sheet only
> > and not modifying files or templates then there is no oppurtunity 
> > for it to spread.
> 
> And how are you going to do this?  Once you are in Python land, there
> is no way to block any access to the file system or the network.
> Unless Python/Perl include some sort of sandbox setup.

At least Perl does

> > It is Microsoft's broken security model that causes secruity 
> > nightmares such as Melissa, not the concept to embeddable code
> > itself.
> 
> If I can put arbitrary code in Gnumeric, how would you stop this
> attack:
> 
> 	=perl("unlink /etc/passwd;");

	use Safe;
	$s = Safe->new(...);
	$s->eval($code);

should do it. Of course, this disallows file io completely.

	Tuomas