Re: The --password and clumsy users issue

2014-07-21 Thread Julian Foad
Markus Schaber wrote: > Julian Foad wrote: >>   "specify a password ARG (insecure: on many systems, >>   other users can read the command-line arguments)" > > I fully agree with your concerns about vague warnings. But in my eyes, > it is also important to point out the alternatives, so that the us

AW: AW: The --password and clumsy users issue

2014-07-06 Thread Markus Schaber
Hi, Julian, > Von: Julian Foad [mailto:julianf...@btopenworld.com] > I was about to commit Ben's suggestion of changing the --password help text > to > > "specify a password ARG (this usually is not secure)" > > as a first step that would be useful on its own regardless whether we do > somethi

Re: AW: The --password and clumsy users issue

2014-07-04 Thread Julian Foad
I was about to commit Ben's suggestion of changing the --password help text to   "specify a password ARG (this usually is not secure)" as a first step that would be useful on its own regardless whether we do something more. But then I thought about how users (myself included) tend to ignore war

Re: The --password and clumsy users issue

2014-07-04 Thread Philip Martin
Ben Reser writes: > I don't think the C standards specify this sort of behavior but something has > to be shared between the kernel and the process in order to allow this > modification. sendmail is known for changing its ps line. There is a python module that demonstrates various methods: htt

AW: The --password and clumsy users issue

2014-07-04 Thread Markus Schaber
Hi, > [Long discussion snipped to protect the innocent] > > As far as I know, an environment variable could be used as an alternative. It > can be set by shell scripts and the python test harness locally (only > affecting the started svn sub process), and on most operating systems, other > non-ad

AW: The --password and clumsy users issue

2014-07-04 Thread Markus Schaber
Hi, Von: Gabriela Gibson [mailto:gabriela.gib...@gmail.com] > This discussion kicked off on the wrong list, so since I started > it, I've concatenated the posts. > > Intro: > -- > > I used the --password option in a commit and then found that the > process with my password in full view hun

Re: The --password and clumsy users issue

2014-07-04 Thread Gabriela Gibson
On Fri, Jul 4, 2014 at 8:46 AM, Branko Čibej wrote: > On 04.07.2014 02:14, Gabriela Gibson wrote: > > I also looked at the C90 standard because I thought maybe they defined > argv as immutable (since it should not complain about being const with this > type of main declaration I think) and this

Re: The --password and clumsy users issue

2014-07-04 Thread Branko Čibej
On 04.07.2014 04:34, Ben Reser wrote: > On 7/3/14 4:50 PM, Gabriela Gibson wrote:> it compiles and runs and in gdb the > vars do change, but the compiler isn't happy: >> subversion/svn/svn.c: In function 'main': >> >> subversion/svn/svn.c:3048:23: warning: assignment discards 'const' qualifier >> f

Re: The --password and clumsy users issue

2014-07-04 Thread Branko Čibej
On 04.07.2014 02:14, Gabriela Gibson wrote: > I also looked at the C90 standard because I thought maybe they defined > argv as immutable (since it should not complain about being const with > this type of main declaration I think) and this is what is says: > > "The parameters argc and argv and the

Re: The --password and clumsy users issue

2014-07-04 Thread Gabriela Gibson
What if we leave the current --password as is (for convenience) and just add an optional, secondary password mechanism for those admins who want to be doubly sure? On Fri, Jul 4, 2014 at 7:00 AM, Ben Reser wrote: > On 7/3/14 9:10 PM, Martin Furter wrote: > > 3) Allow the password to be supplie

Re: The --password and clumsy users issue

2014-07-03 Thread Ben Reser
On 7/3/14 9:10 PM, Martin Furter wrote: > 3) Allow the password to be supplied over stdin using the special value "-". > > Nobody will see the password. The only leak is that a password has been > supplied using stdin. An attacker will have to convince the calling > application > to run something

Re: The --password and clumsy users issue

2014-07-03 Thread Martin Furter
On 07/04/14 04:47, Gabriela Gibson wrote: This is a summary of Ben's reply: Ben Reser wrote on Thu, Jul 03, 2014 at 12:54:58 -0700: > 1) Remove the option. > 2) Redact the password in the argv after starting up and finding the > bits to redact. 3) Allow the password to be supplied over std

Re: The --password and clumsy users issue

2014-07-03 Thread Ben Reser
On 7/3/14 4:50 PM, Gabriela Gibson wrote:> it compiles and runs and in gdb the vars do change, but the compiler isn't happy: > subversion/svn/svn.c: In function 'main': > > subversion/svn/svn.c:3048:23: warning: assignment discards 'const' qualifier > from pointer target type [enable\ > d by defaul

Re: The --password and clumsy users issue

2014-07-03 Thread Gabriela Gibson
I also looked at the C90 standard because I thought maybe they defined argv as immutable (since it should not complain about being const with this type of main declaration I think) and this is what is says: "The parameters argc and argv and the strings pointed to by the argv array shall be modifia

Re: The --password and clumsy users issue

2014-07-03 Thread Gabriela Gibson
Oh, I was playing about with this earlier, but didn't get all that far: I go this far in svn.c (has breakpoint marker in it) [[[ int main(int argc, char **argv) { apr_pool_t *pool; int exit_code = EXIT_SUCCESS; svn_error_t *err; const char **argv_org; /* Initiali

Re: The --password and clumsy users issue

2014-07-03 Thread Ben Reser
On 7/3/14 4:23 PM, Gabriela Gibson wrote: > Could that be because of the libtool svn-lt script that sits in the middle? > Because in gdb it does change, but not in ps. No because I wasn't even doing anything with Subversion yet let alone libtool. It was just a very basic C program with nothing mo

Re: The --password and clumsy users issue

2014-07-03 Thread Gabriela Gibson
Ben wrote: > Rewriting the array isn't seen by the kernel. At least when I initially wrote > that example I tried just setting argv[++i] = "" and the ps output > didn't change. Could that be because of the libtool svn-lt script that sits in the middle? Because in gdb it does change, but not in p

The --password and clumsy users issue

2014-07-03 Thread Gabriela Gibson
This discussion kicked off on the wrong list, so since I started it, I've concatenated the posts. Intro: -- I used the --password option in a commit and then found that the process with my password in full view hung around for an entire week and could be seen by anyone with access to the same