On Fri, Aug 12 2016, Daniel Kahn Gillmor <dkg@fifthhorseman.net> wrote: > On Fri 2016-08-12 03:38:53 -0400, David Bremner wrote: >> Daniel Kahn Gillmor <dkg@fifthhorseman.net> writes: >> >>>> Should we distinguish between relative and absolute paths here? I can't >>>> think of any security implications, but I'm wondering if a relative path >>>> is likely just a user error. >>> >>> I don't think a relative path is necessarily a user error. I certainly >>> use relative paths myself from time to time. >> >> As configuration values? That seems quite fragile, since it depends on >> the current working directory when notmuch is run. > > rarely! but sometimes i do it because i'm testing things in strange > ways, and it can be a bit frustrating to have a tool second-guess me > when it seems like i ought to be able to drop the same string i'm using > on the command line into the configuration. > > I don't feel strongly, though. if you want to say that bare words found > in the $PATH and absolute filenames (starting with /) are fine in the > notmuch config but relative paths are not, i'd be ok with that :) >From consistency point of view, current patch not checking it being absolute might prevail -- I don't see database.path being checked for being absolute... The probability for user error is pretty small there -- if there is typo/thinko there things usually just starts failing. Security is easier to break elsewhere than here (e.g. borken PATH...) I'd keep the current implementation of test_for_executable()... Tomi > > --dkg