While NOT using Taint in a CGI script is a potential security hole, not using Warnings and Strictures is neither a security hole nor a bug.

Warnings and Strictures should only be used during development. They don't really serve a useful purpose in production code. If you're relying on them to catch errors in live CGI scripts then it could have disastrous effects *. CGI scripts are a special entity and knowing that if the worse can happen it will, coding for those kind of eventualities, so that scripts report and handle errors safely, can save a lot of grief. In fact leaving use warnings and use strict uncommented in a CGI script can be an unnecessary drain on your webserver.

Tainting doesn't necessarily require you to have -T at the top of your script. However, it does mean you should code assuming anything coming from the outside world is harmful.

* I have been witness to several sites exposing their DB access username/password once a fatal error occurs.

--
Barbie | Birmingham Perl Mongers | http://birmingham.pm.org/

In reply to Re: Re: Re: How many security holes can you find? by barbie
in thread How many security holes can you find? by dragonchild

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