how do you get the name of a dictionary?

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Fri, 18 Aug 2006 11:45:05 -0700, Andy Terrel wrote:

> here is an easy hack,  I don't know if there is an explicit function.
> 
> 
> for i in dir():
>      if eval(i) == Banana:
>              print i


Let's just hope that there is no way for black-hats to remotely inject
code objects into your namespace:

>>> class Killer:
...     def __repr__(self):
...             import os
...             os.system('echo Do something evil...')
...             return "Your system is 0wn3d" 
...
>>> x = Killer()

Now x is sitting there in your namespace like a mine, just waiting for
you to call eval('x').

Okay, so maybe it isn't the most likely security threat in the universe,
but it is a reminder that eval() can have side-effects. In this specific
instance, if repr() has a side-effect (e.g. an object that knows how many
times it has been printed), so will your code. That's probably not a good
thing to do.



-- 
Steven D'Aprano