Plash version 1.18
Package system
The major new feature in this release is the packaging system, for running programs from Debian packages in sandboxes. This is able to run a number of programs such as Firefox and Evince. See PackageTools.
This first version of the package system has some shortcomings:
- It doesn't check GPG signatures on Debian repositories.
- There is no way to grant extra authority besides the powerbox, and no way to save authority across sessions.
- No GUI for installing applications.
- Uses curl to fetch files and doesn't catch 404 errors properly.
- The package tools are not themselves sandboxed. A Packages.gz file may be able to use ".." in filenames to escape the sandbox (although programs in the .debs cannot).
This is something of a stopgap release in terms of the package system. A priority for the next version is to add a persistence system. This will provide a way of granting authority across sessions, and it will provide a way to configure the package system including specifying GPG keys.
Wiki
This is the first release to be documented through the wiki. Bugs are tracked on the wiki, new features tracked through story pages, and the RoadMap page sketches out plans for future changes. The older pages outside the wiki will be removed soon.
Security fix
This release addresses a major security issue: granting access to the terminal (see PlashIssues/TtyVulnerability). pola-run now proxies access to the terminal. This has been implemented in Python, and as a consequence the package has switched to installing the Python implementation of pola-run instead of the C implementation. pola-shell has been dropped from the .deb for this release. The plan is to add it back when it is rewritten in Python.
Minor new feature: --tmp
The options --tmp/--tmpdir have been added to pola-run, partly to address PlashIssues/HardLinkVulnerability. See Story8.
Testing
The test suite is much expanded, with new unit tests being written in Python. Previously tests were written in Perl and closer to functional/integration tests in scope. See TestingPlash.
Bugs
Issues fixed:
In particular one issue still remains: