Beware xargs security holes

[Edward Vielmetti]

In article <4203 at umbc3.UMBC.EDU> rouben at math9.math.umbc.edu (Rouben Rostamian) writes:

   I ran this test on Ultrix V4.0 and on a Stardent 3000 (a hybrid SysV/bsd 
   beast.)  In neither test the file was removed.  So no quoting from xargs
   in these cases.

SunOS 4.0.3 also does not remove the file.  Instead it says 

urania /tmp/foo % find . -print | xargs rm
rm: cannot remove `.' or `..'

--Ed

Edward Vielmetti, U of Michigan math dept <emv at math.lsa.umich.edu>
moderator, comp.archives