Re: [RFC] Adding a SECURITY policy for GDB

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> From: Andreas Schwab <schwab@linux-m68k.org>
> Cc: Andrew Burgess <aburgess@redhat.com>,  gdb-patches@sourceware.org,
>   siddhesh@redhat.com,  kevinb@redhat.com,  simark@simark.ca,
>   felix.willgerodt@intel.com,  paulkoning@comcast.net
> Date: Sun, 04 Feb 2024 18:43:07 +0100
> 
> On Feb 04 2024, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> 
> > What bothered me here is that when you say "gdb ./program", GDB can do
> > two things which constitute code execution:
> >
> >   . run some startup code in the program, for example, load some
> >     shared libraries, which could trigger execution of some code in
> >     those libraries, or
> >   . process various init files, which could invoke code in
> >     Python/Guile, or call functions inside the debuggee
> >
> > The second item actually happens when you say "gdb ./emacs" in the src
> > directory of an Emacs source tree, because there's a .gdbinit file
> 
> Not by default.  It needs to be enabled by setting the auto-load
> safe-path.

That's a subtlety that, if significant, should IMO be explicitly
mentioned, because otherwise talking about "user issuing a GDB command
triggering execution (either from the GDB command line, a GDB
configuration file, or from the GDB prompt)" does not necessarily
include the above.  For example, the .gdbinit file that comes with
Emacs was not written by any particular user of GDB who happens to
debug Emacs.