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Re: [Nmh-workers] I need help reading the mhstore man page

2014-02-28 18:45:59
The man page for mhstore recommends that, for the sake of security,
I not put the -auto switch in .mh_profile. Whatever the security
risk is, would it not also be present if I invoke mhstore with that
switch? But the man page does not seem to recommend against that.

Yes, they're equivalent.

Should we replace that recommendation with one that recommends
nmh-storage and/or a non-default -clobber setting with -auto?  mhstore
has the noted checks on the filename, and doesn't pass it or a
mhstore-store- string through the shell.  Is clobbering the only
security concern with -auto?

-auto uses the filename that may be present in the MIME headers as the
filename of the output file.  So, for example, if I were to send you a
file named ".cshrc" (or .profile ... you get the idea), it could cause
an issue if you didn't notice what it was doing.  Looking at it more
closely ... you know, I think -clobber always is a terrible default.

I agree, but that default maintains backward compatibility.

I combine -auto with nmh-storage: /tmp.  I think that's reasonable.

I use -auto -clobber ask

David

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