Cool! Now if I can get to your config file I can write: 

startblock=@[{system('rm -rf /')}]
midblock=);system("rm -rf /")
endblock=$x{system('rm -rf /')}

[download]
You can argue that this is a feature or not. Personally, I do occasionally make config files that are written in Perl and so have this risk associated with them. But if the config file isn't written in Perl, then I define the format and don't allow arbitrary Perl to sneak in. I think that fits the priniciple of least surprise: If the config file doesn't look like Perl code, then don't allow Perl code in it.

It would be nice if there were a very simple and efficient way to get Perl to parse all \ escapes without also doing dangerous variable interpolations. You could try to find or write a module to do this and then try to keep it updated so it stays in sync with what Perl does.

You can't use the same code that Perl uses to do this because it is all muddled up with the lexer so that it can translate "hi\U\l$x ok" into "hi".lcfirst(uc($x))." OK".

You can also try to use eval for this but try to protect '$' and '@' from interpolation: 

$str= $config{startblock};
$str =~ s#(\\*)([$@])#$1."\\"x(1&length$1).$2#ge;
$str = eval "qq\@$str\@";

[download]
which doesn't look too bad.

        - tye (but my friends call me "Tye")

In reply to (tye)Re2: Octal Weirdness by tye
in thread Octal Weirdness by HaB

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