[Python-Dev] Remove tempfile.mktemp()

[Brett Cannon]

On Tue, Mar 19, 2019 at 10:22 AM Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> wrote:

> On Tue, Mar 19, 2019 at 10:14 AM Giampaolo Rodola' <g.rodola at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>
>> On Tue, 19 Mar 2019 at 17:47, Sebastian Rittau <srittau at rittau.biz>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Am 19.03.19 um 17:23 schrieb Giampaolo Rodola':
>>> > @Sebastian
>>> >> If there are valid use cases for mktemp(), I recommend renaming
>>> >> it to mkname_unsafe() or something equally obvious.
>>> > I'm -1 about adding an alias (there should be one and preferably only
>>> > one way to do it). Also mkstemp() and mkdtemp() are somewhat poorly
>>> > named IMO, but I wouldn't add an alias for them either.
>>> >
>>> Just to clarify: I was not suggesting creating an alias, I was suggesting
>>> renaming the function, but keeping the old name for a normal
>>> deprecation cycle.
>>>
>>> But I had another thought: If I understand correctly, the exploitability
>>> of mktemp() relies on the fact that between determining whether the
>>> file exists and creation an attacker can create the file themselves.
>>> Couldn't this problem be solved by generating a filename of sufficient
>>> length using the secrets module? This way the filename should be
>>> "unguessable" and safe.
>>
>>
>> Technically you cannot make it 100% safe, only less likely to occur.
>>
>
> That seems unnecessarily pedantic. A cryptographic random generator, like
> the one in the secrets module, *is* safe enough for all practical purposes
> (with a large margin).
>
>
>> And on a second thought (I retract :)) since this could be used in real
>> apps other than tests (I was too focused on that) I think this should be a
>> doc warning after all, not info. Doc may suggest to use mode=x when
>> creating the file, in order to remove the security implications.
>>
>
> Hm, the random sequence (implemented in tempfile._RandomNameSequence) is
> currently derived from the random module, which is not cryptographically
> secure. Maybe all we need to do is replace its source of randomness with
> one derived from the secrets module. That seems a one-line change.
>

If the only security vulnerability is due to the ability to guess a path
that would make sense (but I honestly don't know since I'm not a security
expert).

If Guido's suggestion isn't enough then I think that long with a rename of
the function to make it obvious that there's potential issues and
deprecating the old name makes the most sense.
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