GNU bug report logs - #27986
26.0.50; `rename-file' can rename files without confirmation

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From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>, John Wiegley <johnw <at> gnu.org>, Stefan Monnier <monnier <at> iro.umontreal.ca>
Cc: p.stephani2 <at> gmail.com, 27986 <at> debbugs.gnu.org, rms <at> gnu.org
Subject: bug#27986: 26.0.50; 'rename-file' can rename files without confirmation
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2017 20:30:44 +0300

> Cc: p.stephani2 <at> gmail.com, 27986 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
> From: Paul Eggert <eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu>
> Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2017 10:19:35 -0700
> 
> > What's more, some of the use cases will not even
> > signal an error after the change, they will instead silently do
> > something different from the previous versions, which is really bad.
> 
> This should be quite rare. The only scenario I see matching your concern is if 
> the source is a directory, the destination is not a directory name but is an 
> empty directory and is not a symlink, and the destination is not a descendant of 
> the source. Although not impossible, this will happen so rarely that it doesn't 
> invalidate the proposed change.

I don't think we know how rare that is.  And if it is very rare, I'm
not sure it's better, because it means such problems might go
unnoticed and/or unfixed for years.

> I've looked at this issue fairly carefully, and I'm afraid the solution I've 
> proposed is the best way forward if we want to close the security hole in Emacs.

Let's hear more opinions, okay?

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