Re: Warn about shell-expansion in the docstring of org-latex-to-html-convert-command

[Ihor Radchenko]

Max Nikulin <manikulin@gmail.com> writes:

>> Even stripping quotes is unreliable when we use the example from
>> docstring: 'literal:%i'.
>
> My idea is to recognize this case. If stripping is not performed then it 
> is necessary to detect if user command is safe. Otherwise apostrophe in 
> a formula (even after escaping) may cause leaking math to shell. I have 
> not figured out if it is possible to bypass double quotes, but extra 
> slashes may distort math expression.
>
> It is trivial to cause shell failure when single quotes are used around 
> %i. I am in doubts concerning double quotes. Perhaps stripping them is 
> more reliable.

May you list the cases to you propose to recognize?

>> Attaching tentative patch that fixes the problem.
>
> I think it is in the right direction.
> - Manual needs update as well.

Yes,

  #+begin_src emacs-lisp
  (setq org-latex-to-mathml-convert-command
        "latexmlmath \"%i\" --presentationmathml=%o")
  #+end_src

example in "LaTeX math snippets" section should be updated. (note to self)

> - I would explicitly stress that quotes causes undefined or even 
> dangerous behavior. See e.g. the last paragraph
> https://specifications.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/latest/ar01s07.html

In ORG-NEWS?

> - I expected it as bugfix.

It is a breaking change.
Also, only users who customized the variable may be prone to unexpected
shell expansion. So, I do not see it as a critical bug.
Hence, not for bugfix.

> I have tried to add some unit tests, but I faced an issue with 
> `org-create-math-formula'. It creates temporary files in 
> `default-directory' and does not remove them on failure. Moreover, it 
> does not work in a container where git is not installed:
> ...
> Debugger entered--Lisp error: (file-missing "Searching for program" "No 
> such file or directory" "git")
>
> that is called from `find-file-hook'.

with emacs -Q?

-- 
Ihor Radchenko // yantar92,
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