[Python-Dev] patch commit policies (was [issue4308] repr of httplib.IncompleteRead is stupid)

[Tres Seaver]

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Chris Withers wrote:
> Martin v. Löwis wrote:
>> Martin v. Löwis <martin at v.loewis.de> added the comment:
>>
>>> So all Chris has to do to get this applied to 2.5 is craft an exploit based
>>> on the current behavior, right? ;-)
>> Right :-) Of course, security patches should see a much more careful
>> review than regular bug fixes.
> 
> Well, it's funny you say that, since where I bumped into this, the bug 
> was effectively DOS'ing a couple of mailservers as a result of 
> mailinglogger sending out log entries of uncaught exceptions such as 
> this and so emitting 100Mb emails whenever the foreign server chose not 
> to deliver the whole chunk requested...

If it is possible for a hostile outsider to trigger the DOS by sending
mail to be processed by an application using the library, and the
application can't avoid the DOS without ditching / forking /
monkeypatching the library, then I would call the bug a "security bug",
period.

As for backward compatibility:  any application which is depending on
getting arbitrarily-long lines in its logfile is already insane, and
should be scrapped.


Tres.
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Tres Seaver          +1 540-429-0999          tseaver at palladion.com
Palladion Software   "Excellence by Design"    http://palladion.com
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