Signpost security considerations in library

[tonybaloney]

BPO	39498
Nosy	@tiran, @merwok, @ambv, @willingc, @JulienPalard, @tonybaloney, @miss-islington
PRs	bpo-39498 Start linking the security warnings in the stdlib modules #18272 [3.10] bpo-39498 Start linking the security warnings in the stdlib modules (GH-18272) #27696 [3.9] bpo-39498 Start linking the security warnings in the stdlib modules (GH-18272) #27699

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

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GitHub fields:

assignee = None
closed_at = <Date 2021-08-10.07:52:07.617>
created_at = <Date 2020-01-30.05:14:32.157>
labels = ['type-feature', 'docs']
title = 'Signpost security considerations in library'
updated_at = <Date 2021-08-10.07:52:07.617>
user = 'https://github.com/tonybaloney'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2021-08-10.07:52:07.617>
actor = 'lukasz.langa'
assignee = 'docs@python'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2021-08-10.07:52:07.617>
closer = 'lukasz.langa'
components = ['Documentation']
creation = <Date 2020-01-30.05:14:32.157>
creator = 'anthonypjshaw'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 39498
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 9.0
messages = ['361009', '361697', '361746', '372288', '372302', '372303', '399293', '399299', '399300']
nosy_count = 8.0
nosy_names = ['christian.heimes', 'eric.araujo', 'docs@python', 'lukasz.langa', 'willingc', 'mdk', 'anthonypjshaw', 'miss-islington']
pr_nums = ['18272', '27696', '27699']
priority = 'normal'
resolution = 'fixed'
stage = 'resolved'
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue39498'
versions = []

[tonybaloney]

Within the documentation, there are some really important security considerations for standard library modules. e.g. subprocess, ssl, pickle, xml.

There is currently no "index" of these, so you have to go hunting for them. They're easter eggs within the docs. There isn't a unique admonition type either, so you have to search across many criteria.

In particular for security researchers, it would be useful to consolidate and signpost these security best-practices in one index.

PR to follow,

[JulienPalard]

Asked on gh:

this is a "security guidance for standard library modules" index?

(I'm not sure to understand the question exactly)

I think it could be usefull from a reviewer point of view to have such index so he can iterate over it and check point by point if the code is OK.

In this case, linking to all notes like "beware, wrong usage of this could lead to security issues" looks what's needed in this index.

Anthony: did you opened the issue with this in mind or any other usages?

[willingc]

I agree that a helpful entry in the index would be a nice addition. Christian would be the person to start with since he probably has ideas what would be useful too.

[merwok]

I think that we could make this easier with a custom directive that’s rendered into the appropriate markup during build and auto-generates the index page with links to all links. No error-prone manual update needed!

[tiran]

+1

[tiran]

There are more features that should have security considerations, e.g. builtin functions like eval and exec.

[ambv]

New changeset c5c5326 by Anthony Shaw in branch 'main':
bpo-39498 Start linking the security warnings in the stdlib modules (GH-18272)
c5c5326

[miss-islington]

New changeset d657da8 by Miss Islington (bot) in branch '3.10':
bpo-39498 Start linking the security warnings in the stdlib modules (GH-18272)
d657da8

[ambv]

New changeset fcbe8c6 by Miss Islington (bot) in branch '3.9':
bpo-39498 Start linking the security warnings in the stdlib modules (GH-18272) (GH-27699)
fcbe8c6