Linux

6803 readers

208 users here now

A community for everything relating to the GNU/Linux operating system

Also check out:

Original icon base courtesy of lewing@isc.tamu.edu and The GIMP

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

Ategon@programming.dev

anzo@programming.dev

dwraf_of_ignorance@programming.dev

290

Am in the only one who cringes at install instructions that require piping some curl output into bash? (programming.dev)

submitted 2 weeks ago by cschreib@programming.dev to c/linux@programming.dev

140 comments fedilink hide all child comments

curl https://some-url/ | sh

I see this all over the place nowadays, even in communities that, I would think, should be security conscious. How is that safe? What's stopping the downloaded script from wiping my home directory? If you use this, how can you feel comfortable?

I understand that we have the same problems with the installed application, even if it was downloaded and installed manually. But I feel the bar for making a mistake in a shell script is much lower than in whatever language the main application is written. Don't we have something better than "sh" for this? Something with less power to do harm?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] zygo_histo_morpheus@programming.dev 91 points 2 weeks ago (9 children)

You have the option of piping it into a file instead, inspecting that file for yourself and then running it, or running it in some sandboxed environment. Ultimately though, if you are downloading software over the internet you have to place a certain amount of trust in the person your downloading the software from. Even if you're absolutely sure that the download script doesn't wipe your home directory, you're going to have to run the program at some point and it could just as easily wipe your home directory at that point instead.

[–] HelloRoot@lemy.lol 36 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

All the software I have is downloaded from the internet...

[–] WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world 28 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

You should try downloading the software from your mind brain, like us elite hackers do it. Just dump the binary from memory into a txt file and exe that shit, playa!

[–] zygo_histo_morpheus@programming.dev 16 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You should start getting it from CD-roms, that shit you can trust

[–] veroxii@aussie.zone 25 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I got my software from these free USB sticks I found in the parking lot.

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago

Ah, you're one of my users

[–] Ephera@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 weeks ago

It is kind of cool, when you've actually written your own software and use that. But realistically, I'm still getting the compiler from the internet...

[–] strongarm@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 weeks ago

Steady on Buck Rogers, what is this, 2025!?

load more comments (4 replies)