killing thread ?

[Jp Calderone]

On Fri, Jan 24, 2003 at 07:52:08AM -0800, Paul Rubin wrote:
> Peter Hansen <peter at engcorp.com> writes:
> > If you're worried about some kind of denial of service type
> > thing with code written by someone else: you're out of luck.
> > Don't use Python.  (Or, better yet, get over the worry and just
> > accept this possibility.)
> 
> Wha?  Python provides the rexec and bastion modules specifically to
> have a way to run hostile code in a sandbox.  So what kind of advice
> is "don't use Python"?  If sandboxed code can be prevented from
> accessing sensitive data or doing i/o, but can't be prevented from
> looping unkillably, that's a bug in Python.

  Yes, that's why Python provides them.  But this misconception (that they
work) is also why it will soon -not- provide them :P  And neither RExec nor
Bastion ever protected you against "while 1: pass" or "100L ** 100L ** 100L
** 100L ** 100L".  It is currently not possible to write a secure sandbox in
Python.  I'm not sure if you can call that a bug; it's certainly
unfortunate.

  Jp

-- 
A sad spectacle.  If they be inhabited, what a scope for misery 
and folly.  If they be not inhabited, what a waste of space.
                -- Thomas Carlyle, looking at the stars
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