From: Ben Giddings <bg-rubytalk@...>
Date: 2003-11-25T04:22:43+09:00
Subject: Re: Message "Insecure world writable dir ..."

Yukihiro Matsumoto wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> In message "Message "Insecure world writable dir ...""
>     on 03/11/24, Harry Ohlsen <harryo@qiqsolutions.com> writes:
> |
> |When File.popen() is passed an executable whose path contains a world writable directory, it produces a warning message.
> |
> |While I think this is a good idea, I have no control over the permissions on one such directory, and it's driving me nuts seeing the warning twenty times whenever I run that script.
> |
> |Is there a way to disable the warning ... other than re-building the ruby executable without it?
> 
> '-W0' if you're using 1.8; but I strongly recommend to fix the
> permission problem.

Hi Matz,

Could you (or someone else) explain what the rationale behind this message 
is?  What sort of thing is it meant to prevent?  I get it all the time 
because I have some odd permissions on some of my directories.  I don't see 
it as an issue, because the security concerns are taken care of in other 
ways.  It seems odd to me that File.popen() (and '`' and 'system') would 
complain about a world-writeable-directory, or even do any security checks, 
unless you explicitly set some variable.

Am I missing something obvious?

Ben