[ python-Bugs-1117601 ] os.path.exists returns false negatives in MAC environments.

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Bugs item #1117601, was opened at 2005-02-06 16:57
Message generated for change (Comment added) made by josiahcarlson
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Category: Python Library
Group: Platform-specific
Status: Open
Resolution: None
Priority: 5
Submitted By: Stephen Bennett (sbennett)
Assigned to: Nobody/Anonymous (nobody)
Summary: os.path.exists returns false negatives in MAC environments.

Initial Comment:
In Mandatory Access Control environments (such as
SELinux), it's quite possible for stat to fail with
permission denied. In this case, os.path.exists will
return False incorrectly. The simple(ish) fix is to
check for an access denied error (which would indicate
present, but not readable) when using stat to check for
existence of files.

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Comment By: Josiah Carlson (josiahcarlson)
Date: 2005-05-31 00:09

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I believe Terry was curious about something like
os.path.exists("/etc/shadow/abc123") vs `ls -l
/etc/shadow/abc123`.  If not, I know I am curious, and I
believe it may help with a corner case.

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Comment By: Stephen Bennett (sbennett)
Date: 2005-02-16 14:46

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As far as I know (at least for SELinux), permission denied
on stat() always means that the file exists, but getattr
isn't allowed. As for a reproducible test case, probably the
simplest example is a vanilla Fedora Core 3 system with
SELinux enabled and strict policy. From a regular user
account, call os.path.exists("/etc/shadow"). It will return
False even though the file exists. For comparison, an `ls -l
/etc/shadow` from the command line will simply print
'Permission Denied'.

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Comment By: Terry J. Reedy (tjreedy)
Date: 2005-02-16 12:26

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Does 'access denied' always mean 'present but not readable' 
in every environment that gives such messages?  I ask 
because I have vague memories of wasting time trying to 
get access to something that did not exist, because access 
denied (or something like that) meant that I was denied 
access even to info about whether it existed or not.

In any case, a reproducible example would help someone to 
verify, fix, and write a test case for this if it is deemed to be 
a fixable bug.

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