Package: xexec
Version: 0.0.3-24
Severity: grave
Tags: security
Justification: user security hole

I've been fixing outstanding GCC 4.3 issues and found this while
looking into the build failure:

--
void Exec::runline()
   {
   ofstream command_file;
   int useless;
   command_file.open("/tmp/exec.tmp", ios::out);

     /* What we're doing here is saving our command
     in a little shell script that will be ran comming
     up here. */

   command_file
     << "#!/bin/sh\n"
     << cline->text();
        /* The fun, object orriented STREAM way of
        doing things!! wooohoooo */

   command_file.close();                        // Finish up.

   useless = execlp(SHELL, SHELL, "/tmp/exec.tmp", NULL);
      /* Run shell with command line file as script. */
   }
--

Symlinking /tmp/exec.tmp to any file writable to the user running
xexec will overwrite that file with

#!/bin/sh
name-of-executed-program


Fortunately xexec is almost useless and with hardly any users,
since the functionality is provided by the desktop equivalents
in KDE, GNOME, xfce or a regular xterm:

Description: Run a simple arbitrary command from X
 xexec is a program designed to allow quick and easy access for
 running simple command lines. For example, let's say you wanted to
 start Netscape, but didn't have it on your window manager's menu. Just
 run xexec, and type netscape in the text box, press enter, and there
 you have it.  It is especially useful for allowing access to any
 available command via one primary menu entry.


I'll request archive removal, I don't think we need to waste time with
it. But this is a nice example why we need to be more careful about
fringe packages of poor quality: they don't receive any review
for practical purposes.

This package has been in the archive for ten years and the error
is not exactly hard to find, since the package is ridiculously
small: (the 165 lines even include generated MOC)

SLOC    Directory       SLOC-by-Language (Sorted)
165     top_dir         cpp=165
6       debian          sh=6
0       doc             (none)

Totals grouped by language (dominant language first):
cpp:            165 (96.49%)
sh:               6 (3.51%)

Cheers,
        Moritz

-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.24-1-686 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=C, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (charmap=ISO-8859-15)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages xexec depends on:
ii  libc6                         2.7-9      GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libgcc1                       1:4.3.0-1  GCC support library
ii  libqt3-mt                     3:3.3.8b-4 Qt GUI Library (Threaded runtime v
ii  libstdc++6                    4.3.0-1    The GNU Standard C++ Library v3
ii  libx11-6                      2:1.0.3-7  X11 client-side library
ii  libxext6                      2:1.0.4-1  X11 miscellaneous extension librar

xexec recommends no packages.

-- no debconf information



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