Selfhosted

60934 readers

814 users here now

A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.

Rules:

Detailed Rules Post

Be civil.
No spam.
Posts are to be related to self-hosting.
Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or readme if you're providing a link.
Submission headline should match the article title.
No trolling.
Promotion posts require active participation, with an account that is at least 30 days old. F/LOSS without a paywall has exceptions, with requirements. See the rules link for details. Tags [CBH] or [AIP] are required, see the links in Rule 8 for details.
AI-related discussions and AI-involved promotional posts have additional requirements for tagging, as noted in Rule 7 and the AI & Promotional Post Expanded Rules post, and find example disclosures here.

Resources:

selfh.st Newsletter and index of selfhosted software and apps
awesome-selfhosted software
awesome-sysadmin resources
Self-Hosted Podcast from Jupiter Broadcasting

Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.

Questions? DM the mods!

founded 3 years ago

MODERATORS

curbstickle@anarchist.nexus

curbstickle_lw@lemmy.world

169

A sneaky demonstration of the dangers of curl bash (blog.k3can.us)

submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by K3can@lemmy.radio to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

65 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I set up a quick demonstration to show risks of curl|bash and how a bad-actor could potentially hide a malicious script that appears safe.

It's nothing new or groundbreaking, but I figure it never hurts to have another reminder.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] BluescreenOfDeath@lemmy.world 19 points 5 months ago (1 children)

The post is specifically about how you can serve a totally different script than the one you inspect. If you use curl to fetch the script via terminal, the webserver can send a different script to a browser based on the UserAgent.

And whether or not you think someone would be mad to do it, it's still a widespread practice. The article mentions that piping curl straight to bash is already standard procedure for Proxmox helper scripts. But don't take anyone's word for it, check it out:

https://community-scripts.github.io/ProxmoxVE/

It's also the recommended method for PiHole:

https://docs.pi-hole.net/main/basic-install/

[–] mrnobody@reddthat.com 9 points 5 months ago (2 children)

The reality is a lot of newcomers to Linux won't even understand the risks involved, it's run because that's what they're told or shown to do. That's what I did for pihole many years ago too, I'll admit

[–] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 7 points 5 months ago

I've been accused of "gate keeping" when I tell people that this is a shitty way to deploy applications and that nobody should do it.

[–] BluescreenOfDeath@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

Users are blameless, I find the fault with the developers.

Asking users to pipe curl to bash because it's easier for the developer is just the developer being lazy, IMO.

Developers wouldn't get a free pass for taking lazy, insecure shortcuts in programming, I don't know why they should get a free pass on this.