[Rd] %s in filename when opening device causes crash (PR#10571)

[Richard.Cotton at hsl.gov.uk]

> > Using %s in a filename when opening a device causes R to crash, e.g.,
> >
> > pdf("foo%s.pdf")
> > win.metafile("foo%s.wmf")
> > postscript("foo%s.ps")
> 
> Do you have a workaround for this?  Since that is done at C level, we 
> can't easily trap this (especially on Windows), and the list of possible 

> errors that might cause a crash is rather long.
> 
> It has been considered as a vulnerability, but there seems no simple 
> solution.

The simplest workaround is probably to check that '%s' isn't included in 
the character string for the file argument to each of the R wrapper 
functions, something like

if(length(grep("%s", file))) stop("using '%s' in a filename is invalid")

This of course means that we couldn't use '%s' in a file string (is this a 
great loss?), and that users could still cause a crash by calling the 
.External code directly.

Regards,
Richie.

Mathematical Sciences Unit
HSL


------------------------------------------------------------------------
ATTENTION:

This message contains privileged and confidential inform...{{dropped:21}}