[openssl-dev] [openssl.org #1520] request for checking if -in and -out files are same

[Richard Levitte via RT]

On Thu Apr 19 18:01:38 2007, samjnaa at gmail.com wrote:
> Dear sirs,
>
> I have been using openssl for some personal home-use encryption, and
> recently overwrote an input file while using openssl bf accidentally
> because bash's autocompletion put in the input file's name when I
> started typing the same name (minus bf at the end) for the output and I
> carelessly hit enter.
>
> For me it was not a big issue since those files were recoverable from
> elsewhere but there are probably people using openssl for more important
> things and they might have a serious problem if such a thing happened.
>
> So I request that openssl bf and other such openssl commands must check
> whether the input and output filenames are same and in such case give
> the user a warning and ask whether the user wants the output file to
> have the same name by deleting the input file after processing.
>
> If yes, then use a temporary file name till processing is done and then
> delete the input file and do something like mv tempfile origfile.
>
> If no, then abort.
>
> Since this is not a technical problem but an interface feature request I
> did not include the make report output etc (since I am using a pre-built
> openssl from my distro).
>
> Thank you.
>
> Shriramana Sharma.

I keep revisiting this (age old, sorry about that) issue time and again, and I
think the proper response is to reject this as a usage issue rather than an
inherent bug in OpenSSL command line.

Cheers,
Richard

--
Richard Levitte
levitte at openssl.org

-- 
Ticket here: http://rt.openssl.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=1520
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