Re: [PATCH] Secure programming additions to HACKING

On Tue, Apr 23, 2002 at 11:05:15AM -0500, Karl Fogel wrote:
> "Sander Striker" <striker@apache.org> writes:
> > I'm sure Alex wants to contribute in that department.
> >
> > I think it is wise to 'educate' the developers in the mean time, so
> > the same mistakes won't be introduced while others are being fixed.
>
> What I'm getting at is, it'll be better to figure out some code
> changes first and *then* write the new material for HACKING, based on
> the tangible experiences in the code.

There have already been "tangible experiences" with patches. We've seen
patches that use strcpy() and malloc(), for example.

Thus, generic mistakes *ARE* a good thing to put in there.

> That patch to HACKING would have had no effect on people's coding.
> The generic practices that it recommends most of us here already know.

The HACKING document is not for *us*, though. It is for (potential)
contributors. Anything that we can include in there, before we have to see
their patch will reduce our load, distributing it appropriately.

> Those who don't know quickly find out anyway, because of all the peer
> review. I don't think there's any place in Subversion itself where we
> read arbitrary length data into a fixed-length array; if there is,
> it's because it slipped by a bunch of people who are well aware it's a
> no-no.

I'd prefer to catch it sooner.

> The stuff about security boundaries is helpful, but it wasn't specific
> enough to actually change anyone's behavior (I didn't know what I was
> supposed to do differently, for instance). It needs concrete examples
> from Subversion to be effective, that's all I'm saying.

While true, what Alex has done is a start, and should go in. If you want to
wait for perfection, then you won't get what you want.

Cheers,
-g

-- 
Greg Stein, http://www.lyra.org/
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