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From: <rsbecker@nexbridge.com>
To: "'Alejandro Colomar \(man-pages\)'" <alx.manpages@gmail.com>,
	"'Theo de Raadt'" <deraadt@openbsd.org>
Cc: "'Libc-alpha'" <libc-alpha@sourceware.org>,
	"'linux-man'" <linux-man@vger.kernel.org>, <git@vger.kernel.org>,
	<tech@openbsd.org>
Subject: RE: Is getpass(3) really obsolete?
Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2021 11:00:38 -0400	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <00f001d7ccd5$bf25e0f0$3d71a2d0$@nexbridge.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <326e75f9-f732-a7a8-22dc-5fc304601b39@gmail.com>

On October 29, 2021 10:45 AM, Alejandro Colomar wrote:
> On 10/29/21 16:33, rsbecker@nexbridge.com wrote:
> > October 29, 2031 10:21 AM, Theo de Raadt will write:
> >> <rsbecker@nexbridge.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>>>> getpass() is obsolete in POSIX.2. However, some platforms still
> >>>>> are on
> >>> POSIX.1,
> >>>> so replacing it instead of providing a configure detection/switch
> >>>> for it
> >>> might
> >>>> cause issues.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> The community finally had the balls to get rid of gets(3).
> >>>>
> >>>> getpass(3) shares the same flaw, that the buffer size isn't passed.
> >>>> This has been an issue in the past, and incorrectly led to
> >>> readpassphrase(3)
> 
> That seems a good reason to keep the "Do not use it." note in the manual page.
> I think I'll add a recommendation for readpassphrase(3bsd) for the moment
> which is the only alternative available in Linux.
> 
> >>>>
> >>>> readpassphrase(3) has a few too many features/extensions for my
> >>>> taste, but
> >>> at
> >>>> least it is harder to abuse.
> >>>
> >>> readpassphrase is not generally supported. This will break builds on
> >>> many platforms.
> I found readpassphrase(3) in FreeBSD and OpenBSD.
> It is also present in libbsd(7), which is available in most Linux distributions.
> I also found it on a Mac that I have access.
> 
> NetBSD has getpass_r(3) instead.  It is not in any other system I have access.
> 
> 
> >>
> >> Of course moving forward takes a long time.  If a better API is supplied then
> >> there is a choice in 10 years.  If a better API is not supplied, then 10 years
> from
> >> now this conversation can get a reply.
> >
> > I checked the API 10 years from now (check the above date) at it's still not
> there 😉 In the meantime, compatibility is important. I checked the latest
> release (last week's) on my platform and readpassphrase() is not available. Let's
> please put a compatibility layer in.
> >
> libbsd(7) is probably the compatibility layer that you're looking for.
> What system are you on?
> 
> <https://libbsd.freedesktop.org/wiki/>

I am on two variants (x86 and ia64) of HPE NonStop with current operating systems - and I do the build/test for git and OpenSSL. getpass() an alias to getpass2() but the other procs are not present. If this is going into git, I would suggest putting something into compat.c to abstract out the call. If it's there, we can handle it on a platform-by-platform basis.

Thanks,
Randall


  reply	other threads:[~2021-10-29 15:00 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 24+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2021-10-29 11:15 Alejandro Colomar
2021-10-29 11:28 ` Alejandro Colomar (man-pages)
2021-10-29 11:40   ` Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
2021-10-29 12:11     ` Alejandro Colomar (man-pages)
2021-10-29 16:31       ` Joseph Myers
2021-10-30 12:24         ` Alejandro Colomar (man-pages)
2021-11-01 21:31           ` Joseph Myers
2021-10-29 12:10   ` rsbecker
2021-10-29 13:55     ` Eugene Syromyatnikov
2021-10-29 13:55     ` Theo de Raadt
2021-10-29 14:18       ` rsbecker
2021-10-29 14:21         ` Theo de Raadt
2021-10-29 14:33           ` rsbecker
2021-10-29 14:44             ` Alejandro Colomar (man-pages)
2021-10-29 15:00               ` rsbecker [this message]
2021-10-29 14:53       ` Zack Weinberg
2022-09-27 19:19         ` readpassphrase(3) in glibc, and agetpass() (Was: Is getpass(3) really obsolete?) Alejandro Colomar
2022-09-27 19:33           ` Alex Colomar
2022-09-27 20:30           ` Sam James
2022-09-27 21:00             ` Zack Weinberg
2022-09-27 22:41               ` Alejandro Colomar
2022-09-27 20:52           ` readpassphrase(3) in glibc, and agetpass() Junio C Hamano
2021-10-29 15:27   ` [PATCH] getpass.3: SYNOPSIS: Mark getpass() as [[deprecated]] Alejandro Colomar
2021-10-29 20:27   ` Is getpass(3) really obsolete? Jeff King

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