Re: Feasibility of system() plugin?

[Jody Goldberg <jody gnome org>]

On Sun, Feb 24, 2002 at 02:53:21PM -0500, Leigh Smith wrote:
> Ok, the points regarding security are well taken and I didn't consider that 
> issue, but I wonder, doesn't the Python plugin have exactly the same 
> security issue? That is, it would be possible to substitute a malicious 
> python program instead of a malicious executable binary.

There is a key difference.  Plugins are not packaged with the
document.  A spreadsheet does not have the ability to install code
to change things outside its sandbox.  The python plugin provides
the ability to write a function in python, it does not offer the
ability to put python code into the spreadsheet.

We can not protect a user from installing an insecure plugin, but we
can promise that our plugins and our program will attempt to be
secure.  Hence none of the prepackaged plugins will provide a
'system' facility.