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?

  • zygo_histo_morpheus@programming.dev
    23·
    1 day ago

    I mean if you think that it’s bad for linux culture because you’re teaching newbies the wrong lessons, fair enough.

    My point is that most people can parse that they’re essentially asking you to run some commands at a url, and if you have even a fairly basic grasp of linux it’s easy to do that in whatever way you want. I don’t know if I personally would be any happier if people took the time to lecture me on safety habits, because I can interpret the command for myself. curl https://some-url/ | sh is terse and to the point, and I know not to take it completely literally.

    • rah@feddit.ukEnglish
      41·
      1 day ago

      linux culture

      snigger

      you’re teaching newbies the wrong lessons

      The problem is not that it’s teaching bad lessons, it’s that it’s actually doing bad things.

      most people can parse that they’re essentially asking you to run some commands at a url

      I know not to take it completely literally

      Then it needn’t be written literally.

      I think you’re giving the authors of such installation instructions too much credit. I think they intend people to take it literally. I think this because I’ve argued with many of them.