building: validate binaries returned by analysis of ctypes calls

Validate binaries returned by analysis of `ctypes` calls in collected
modules; the analysis might return files that are in `PATH` but are
not binaries, which then cause errors during binary dependency analysis.
An example of such problematic case is the `gmsh` package on Windows,
where `ctypes.util.find_library('gmsh')` ends up resolving the python
script called `gmsh` in the environment's Scripts directory.

PyInstaller/building/build_main.py

@@ -661,10 +661,17 @@ def assemble(self):
 
         for name, co in ctypes_code_objs.items():
             # Get dlls that might be needed by ctypes.
-            logger.debug('Scanning %s for shared libraries or dlls', name)
+            logger.debug('Scanning %s for ctypes-based references to shared libraries', name)
             try:
                 ctypes_binaries = scan_code_for_ctypes(co)
-                self.binaries.extend(set(ctypes_binaries))
+                # As this scan happens after automatic binary-vs-data classification, we need to validate the binaries
+                # ourselves, just in case.
+                for dest_name, src_name, typecode in set(ctypes_binaries):
+                    # Allow for `None` in case re-classification is not supported on the given platform.
+                    if bindepend.classify_binary_vs_data(src_name) not in (None, 'BINARY'):
+                        logger.warning("Ignoring %s found via ctypes - not a valid binary!", src_name)
+                        continue
+                    self.binaries.append((dest_name, src_name, typecode))
             except Exception as ex:
                 raise RuntimeError(f"Failed to scan the module '{name}'. This is a bug. Please report it.") from ex
 

news/7984.bugfix.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+Validate binaries returned by analysis of ``ctypes`` calls in collected
+modules; the analysis might return files that are in ``PATH`` but are
+not binaries, which then cause errors during binary dependency analysis.
+An example of such problematic case is the ``gmsh`` package on Windows,
+where ``ctypes.util.find_library('gmsh')`` ends up resolving the python
+script called ``gmsh`` in the environment's Scripts directory.