GNU bug report logs - #75017
31.0.50; Untrusted user lisp files

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From: john muhl <jm <at> pub.pink>
To: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
Cc: 75017 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#75017: 31.0.50; Untrusted user lisp files
Date: Sun, 22 Dec 2024 18:32:00 -0600

Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org> writes:

>> From: john muhl <jm <at> pub.pink>
>> Date: Sat, 21 Dec 2024 14:48:52 -0600
>> 
>> user-init-file is trusted by default but not other user files.
>> 
>>   C-xf ~/.emacs.d/early-init.el
>>   M-x flymake-mode
>> 
>> Produces a warning:
>> 
>>   Disabling elisp-flymake-byte-compile in early-init.el (untrusted content)
>> 
>> custom-file (when not the same as user-init-file) also causes a
>> warning. Should these also be trusted by default?
>
> No, not IMO.  Please add those files you know you can trust to the
> list of trusted files, and let's see if that works well for you.  If,
> after you have used that for some time, you have observations to
> report or changes to suggest, please do, but let's please base such
> observations on some sufficiently significant (read: long enough)
> experience.

Sure. That’s what I’ve done and it’ll certainly work for me. I
very rarely need to deal with untrusted files so of all Emacs
users I’ll be among those affected the least.

>> What about files put in place by a system admin or your distro’s
>> Emacs package (e.g. site-run-file, default.el)? They generally
>> require root priviledges to install so if they can’t be trusted
>> you’re already in trouble.
>
> On my system, these files do not need any admin privileges, so I don't
> think we should trust them by default.  Users who know that these
> files are modified only by trusted admins can and probably should add
> them to the list of trusted files, if they need that (in general,
> there should be no need to run Flymake in those files, in which case
> these files don't need to be added even if they are trusted).
>
> Btw, if we are talking about trusted admins, then entire directories
> should be trusted, for example /usr/share or /usr/share/emacs.
> There's a reason why we didn't do that by default.

Makes sense. These system files were a bit of a tangent to what
triggered this issue.

Specifically, I was surprised to find that user-init-file is
assumed safe but not early-init-file. After reading the
trusted-content part of the manual where it says “…which means no
file is trusted.” I assumed that included user-init-file. When I
saw that wasn’t the case I then assumed early-init-file would get
the same treatment. Maybe a little extra clarity there would be
sufficient for now.

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