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?

    • FizzyOrange@programming.dev
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      23 hours ago

      Hilarious, but not a security issue. Just shitty Bash coding.

      And I agree it’s easier to make these mistakes in Bash, but I don’t think anyone here is really making the argument that curl | bash is bad because Bash is a shitty error-prone language (it is).

      Definitely the most valid point I’ve read in this thread though. I wish we had a viable alternative. Maybe the Linux community could work on that instead of moaning about it.

      • moonpiedumplings@programming.dev
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        16 hours ago

        Hilarious, but not a security issue. Just shitty Bash coding.

        It absolutely is a security issue. I had a little brain fart, but what I meant to say was “Security isn’t just protection from malice, but also protection from mistakes”.

        Let’s put it differently:

        Hilarious, but not a security issue. Just shitty C coding.

        This is a common sentiment people say about C, and I have a the same opinion about it. I would rather we use systems in place that don’t give people the opportunity to make mistakes.

        I wish we had a viable alternative. Maybe the Linux community could work on that instead of moaning about it.

        Viable alternative for what? Packaging.

        I personally quite like the systems we have. The “install anything from the internet” is exactly how Windows ends up with so much malware. The best way to package software for users is via a package manager, that not only puts more eyes on the software, but many package managers also have built in functionality that makes the process more reliable and secure. For example signatures create a chain of trust. I really like Nix as a distro-agnostic package manager, because due to the unique way they do things, it’s impossible for one package’s build process to interfere with another.

        If you want to do “install anything from the internet” it’s best to do it with containers and sandboxing. Docker/podman for services, and Flatpak for desktop apps, where it’s pretty easy to publish to flathub. Both also seem to be pretty easy, and pretty popular — I commonly find niche things I look at ship a docker image.

        • FizzyOrange@programming.dev
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          13 hours ago

          This is a common sentiment people say about C, and I have a the same opinion about it. I would rather we use systems in place that don’t give people the opportunity to make mistakes.

          The issue with C is it lets you make mistakes that commonly lead to security vulnerabilities - allowing a malicious third party to do bad stuff.

          The Bash examples you linked are not security vulnerabilities. They don’t let malicious third parties do anything. They done have CVEs, they’re just straight up data loss bugs. Bad ones, sure. (And I fully support not using Bash where feasible.)

          Viable alternative for what? Packaging.

          A viable way to install something that works on all Linux distros (and Mac!), and doesn’t require root.

          The reason people use curl | bash is precisely so they don’t have to faff around making a gazillion packages. That’s not a good answer.

          • moonpiedumplings@programming.dev
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            2 hours ago

            A viable way to install something that works on all Linux distros (and Mac!), and doesn’t require root.

            Nix portable installations, Soar.

            The reason people use curl | bash is precisely so they don’t have to faff around making a gazillion packages.

            Developers shouldn’t be making packages. They do things like vendor and pin dependencies, which lead to security and stability issues later down the line. See my other comment where I do a quick look at some of these issues.

            • FizzyOrange@programming.dev
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              2 hours ago

              Soar does look cool, but it requires you to install it first so that adds an extra installation step. Extra installation friction is very bad. And guess how they tell you to install Soar? 😄

              curl -fsSL https://soar.qaidvoid.dev/install.sh | sh
              

              Developers shouldn’t be making packages.

              Ok so how do these packages magically get made? Am I just supposed to not distribute my software? And don’t say “distros will do it” because that’s clearly a shit non-solution. No distro has made a package for any of the software I’ve written.

              • moonpiedumplings@programming.dev
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                44 minutes ago

                curl -fsSL https://soar.qaidvoid.dev/install.sh | sh

                I hate this, but I’ve mentioned before in the other threads related to this that I make an exception for package managers due to their ability to install packages themselves.

                Am I just supposed to not distribute my software? And don’t say “distros will do it” because that’s clearly a shit non-solution. No distro has made a package for any of the software I’ve written.

                Systems that protect people mean bureaucracy. And bureaucracy means slowness. It means many niche libraries or programs won’t get packaged. It means that it won’t get updated to the latest version immediately either, even if they receive security updates.

                But as a consequence of these systems, Debian 12 remained entirely untouched by the XZ backdoor, when almost every other distribution was hit. That’s a pretty big deal.

                As a consequence of a lack of these systems, many Windows programs are still floating around with vulnerable versions of curl, having included the software into their “package” but never bothering to update it.

                I care more about the security of the users than the feelings of the developers. It’s that simple. Developers are a tiny fraction of total computer users. The needs of the many outweigh the wants of the few.