Re: [Groff] Bug#56702: [PATCH] /tmp race in gxditview, suspected poor temp file handling in grohtml, etc

[Werner LEMBERG]

> 1) The HTML output module of groff uses files in /tmp to store some
> images; the files are opened with predictable names without checking
> that they don't exist first.

Colin,

I've forwarded your mail to Gaius who maintains grohtml.

> 2) xditview creates a temporary file in /tmp, with mktemp and fopen,
> which is again insecure because a file could be placed there between
> the two calls (as documented in the libc docs for mktemp).
> 
> 3) indxbib creates temporary files; it uses mktemp and creat to open
> these files, which is not safe since a file could be placed there
> between the two calls.

Is it generally OK to use mktemp() if mkstemp() is not available on
the system?  In the libgroff module it is handled that way, and I
would prefer to do the same in similar cases.  

> 4) xtotroff (seems to be a helper program for xditview) has a minor
> race in opening output files.

OK -- xtotroff, a metric file converter, will neither be installed and
nor be run under normal circumstances since the standard metrics files
come with groff.

Thanks for sending the bug report and the fixes.


    Werner