Hello Brandon, Tuesday, September 7, 2010, 8:37:32 PM, you wrote:

I'd call this incomplete because programs compiled with RTS options enabled are still insecure.

The correct fix is to ignore GHCRTS and die on +RTS *when setuid*. Since

i strongly agree -- Best regards, Bulat mailto:Bulat.Ziganshin@gmail.com

In many cases it would make quite a lot of sense for the developer to be able to specify default flags as well, preferably without resorting to including a C file. Generally, the developer will know better than the user whether it makes sense to include -N, the various thread affinity options, the default stack/heap size, etc. Bonus points for a sensible monoid allowing each library to contribute to the decision for an executable with no declared preference :). Ideally, the user would be able to specify constraints on those sorts of things globally, once for all, perhaps in their cabal configuration (since I for one don't want any program to give itself a default stack size of 2G without my knowledge just because the author couldn't be bothered to track down a space leak). The packages would specify what they want, and cabal would give it to them, within the bounds of the user's constraints. It certainly would not be a trivial undertaking to define the proper behavior of such a system, but if I were gonna wish for a miracle in this area, I think that's the direction I'd be dreaming in. -- James On Sep 7, 2010, at 9:51 PM, Ivan Lazar Miljenovic wrote:

On 8 September 2010 02:37, Brandon S Allbery KF8NH wrote:

...

A better fix would be to identify "safe" settings and only allow those (and only via +RTS) when setuid. OTOH that's pretty much the system configuration version of the Halting Problem :)

Or optionally, allow the developer to specify which flags are safe (e.g. "users are allowed to specify -N").

-- Ivan Lazar Miljenovic Ivan.Miljenovic@gmail.com IvanMiljenovic.wordpress.com _______________________________________________ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe