[kaffe] File.createTempFile() creates files in /tmp with mode 0666!

[Jim Pick]

I think what we have here is that the call is "secure",
providing that the user has the correct umask set up for
however the system administrator has set up the groups
on their system.

The problem occurs when somebody inadvertently uses a
umask like "002", on system where all the users are
members of a common group.  In that case, the files will
be made group writeable (and readable).

Of course, this affects files not just in /tmp, but also
in any other directory.

I guess, it's really the user's responsibility to make
sure they are using a sane umask.  And there are definitely
cases where there may be code written that may depend on the
"group readable/writeable" Unix file permissions.  Since
Java doesn't provide a standard way to chmod files, it
might be wrong to take that feature away.

On the other hand, many users aren't aware of the existence
of umask - it's a slightly more advanced Unix topic.  And it
is an easy thing to get wrong.

How about this for a solution?

 - we make the default mode "0600", so in default operation,
   Kaffe will only create files readable/writeable by the
   user (not group or other).

 - we provide a property setting (eg. -Dkaffe.filecreatemode=0666)
   to enable people to create group readable/writable, or
   any other combination of permissions (providing they
   also set their umask, of course).

Cheers,

 - Jim 

On Mon, 2003-03-03 at 07:45, Dalibor Topic wrote:
> Hi Jim, hi Mark,
> 
> --- Jim Pick <jim@kaffe.org> wrote:
>  
> > So, I personally vote for changing the mode to
> > "0644" or "0600".
> 
> me too ;)
>  
> > Does anybody else know anything about this issue?
> 
> I've tried to look it up in Sun's bug database, but
> there is no information about it, of the 47
> createTempFile related bug reports.
> 
> I've also looked in the Java Class Libraries 2nd Ed
> Vol. 1 Supplement, again nothing.
> 
> On the other hand, you can find it mentioned as a java
> security problem here:
> http://www.networkcomputing.com/1108/1108ws3side1.html?ls=NCJS_1108rt
> http://tigerenvelopes.sourceforge.net/Security.html
> 
> cheers,
> dalibor topic
> 
> __________________________________________________
> Do you Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more
> http://taxes.yahoo.com/
> 
> _______________________________________________
> kaffe mailing list
> kaffe@kaffe.org
> http://kaffe.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kaffe