Re: pkgsrc and security: xpdf example

[Hauke Fath <hf%spg.tu-darmstadt.de@localhost>]

On 2019-07-29 09:37, tlaronde%polynum.com@localhost wrote:
> Nonetheless, for security, xpdf(1) is a good example. It could be argued
> that there could be another mean to send a print job, taking into
> account the problem of the vast variety of printing ways on different OSes

There are that many? You are quite likely to find lpr(1) - even cups 
will provide it, if so configured.

The alternative is apparently to use cups out of the program, which ties 
you to, well, cups.

> (so that
> xpdf would call one explicit program---a defined pathname script,
> defined at installation time---with arguments instead of passing
> whatever command to the shell), but, all in all, it's its function
> to render PDF, on screen or on paper...

Funny, that. I have just come back from mupdf to xpdf for daily use, 
because I found that the blasted former cannot print. It's not just that 
xpdf can print, it will also memorize the proper printer options 
(painfully cribbed together) that I would otherwise have to make a shell 
alias for. Which leads me to my last point...

... what xpdf does (print with a pre-set command via system()) is 
exactly what I would (have to) do from the commandline. Same 
credentials. So how does forcing me to send a document to a printer from 
the shell prompt, as opposed to out of xpdf, make anything/anybody safer?

Seriously puzzled,
hauke

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