[darcs-users] darcs patch: Create temporary files in temporary dire... (and 1 more)

[Kari Hoijarvi]

David Roundy wrote:
> The problem with this change is that we use the current directory for
> security reasons, since it's very hard to safely use the /tmp directory
> when communicating with external programs.  e.g. every time we run darcs
> push, darcs creates the patch bundle in a temporary file before applying
> it.  If we create this file in /tmp, then a malicious user might be able to
> cleverly create a substitute ...
This is a know security issue, which has been addressed at least since 
Windows 2000. Temporary files need to be private.

That's why the c:\temp is obsolete. By default Windows XP sets:

TEMP=C:\Documents and Settings\hoijarvi\Local Settings\Temp

I'm the owner of this directory, so you need to log on as me or 
administrators rights to access it.

If the user sets TEMP=C:\Temp, it's already a security hole, not your 
problem.

So darcs definitely should follow TEMP by default.
Allowing to override this with DARCS_TMPDIR is fine but I see it as an 
unnecessary feature.

Kari