[HEADSUP] Disallowing read() of a directory fd

[Chris]

On Fri, 15 May 2020 13:49:54 -0400 Ed Maste emaste at freebsd.org said

> On Fri, 15 May 2020 at 13:14, Chris <bsd-lists at bsdforge.com> wrote:
> >
> > But given the potential
> > gains for all this, are trivial at best.
In a purely observational view...
> 
> Some benefits of this change have already been discussed:
> 1. It would have prevented, or at least significantly blunted, the
> security issue described in FreeBSD-SA-19:10.ufs.
> 2. It avoids problems caused by application assumptions.
Applications that fail in this regard, are poorly designed, and
need to step up. It's not up to (Free)BSD to bend to their lazyness.
> 
> On the other hand, arguments for allowing reads of directories:
> 1. It's always been that way.
> 2. File system developers and experts may use the ability for certain
> special or unusual actions.
> 
> Making the change with a sysctl to control still allows the special
> case use, and I'm glad that Kyle spent the time on this change.
I too conceded to this perhaps being a reasonable approach. So long
as it wasn't read-only.

In the end; given that there was a non perceivable amount of noise
on this over the last 40 some yrs. It hardly seemed worth/any effort(s).
-- observationally speaking; not emotionally :-)

--Chris