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SYN · Nov 15, 2003, 09:54 AM

And this one affects ALL Cocoa apps.

If you try to save a file with a name that is *much* too long (say, 1000 characters), OSX will apparently suffer some kind of buffer overflow, and overwrite the Folder you're trying to save that file into. It will warn you that it might over write something, but if you're not paying attention... You could potentially completely overwrite a partition (obviously not the system drive for permission reasons, but any partition), if you're saving at the root of that partition.

I stumbled across this bug trying to understand how my mother had deleted her desktop folder. She just tried to save a web page with a very long title. Safari overwrote her Desktop folder, because she was trying to save it to her Desktop. Destroyed every single file she had, instantly, just because she didn't pay attention to the message.

This is a really severe issue IMHO, my mother's experience has been disastrous. The data can probably not be recovered, I really hope Apple fixes this ASAP

sideus · Nov 15, 2003, 10:15 AM

Damn those 1000 character long file names! Damn them to hell!

Love Calm Quiet · Nov 15, 2003, 10:20 AM

In some SAVE dialogs I'll get a warning that a name is too long. Is this not standard? Sounds like big-time booboo.

SYN · Nov 15, 2003, 10:34 AM

Damn those 1000 character long file names! Damn them to hell!

As I said, some web pages have titles that long. That's how it happened to my mother.

In some SAVE dialogs I'll get a warning that a name is too long. Is this not standard? Sounds like big-time booboo

It does, if the name is close to the 256 char limit. Not if its in the 1k ballpark...

theolein · Nov 15, 2003, 10:41 AM

This is a buffer overflow (and a damn bad one at that) and could also be used as a potential exploit. Have you notified Apple about this???? If not, do so, please!

Have you been able to verify this from the commandline as well as from the GUI?

P.S. If you've notified Apple about this and they don't do anything about it (normally they're quite quick with important security related fixes) just submit it to slashdot. They'll have it fixed in no time, then.

SYN · Nov 15, 2003, 10:52 AM

touching a file with a name that long from the cli doesn't work, the os responds with a "file name too long" error.

I don't really know how to correctly notify Apple. I mean, it could take ages for them to read a bug report posted on http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/

Any devs on the Apple mailing lists here?

lookmark · Nov 15, 2003, 11:04 AM

You can join ADC for free. Then report here:

https://bugreport.apple.com/cgi-bin/...s/RadarWeb.woa

wadesworld · Nov 15, 2003, 11:11 AM

This bug should be reported via bug reporter. Join ADC (for free) and then you can report it.

http://bugreport.apple.com

Wade

SYN · 11:39 AM

Originally posted by wadesworld:
This bug should be reported via bug reporter. Join ADC (for free) and then you can report it.

http://bugreport.apple.com

Wade

Done.

Problem ID# :3485338.

Thanks. I hope this is resolved soon. Any data recovery software that might help?

Martiny · 08:16 PM

I easily reproduced your problem in 10.3.1

...it seems that the enclosing folder is just replaced with the file you are trying to save. However, ithe system does warn you that it is going to do exactly that, which is better than nothing **cough** *cough* Filevault issue in 10.3.0 *cough*....

Nice catch

...I hope Apple responds to this quickly...

11011001 · Nov 15, 2003, 08:52 PM

thinks like Norton Utilities can recover those lost files btw. So long as you don't write a whole bunch of new information to your hardrive.

mitchell_pgh · Nov 15, 2003, 09:58 PM

Ummm, I don't care what anyone says...

Apple should fix this. We shouldn't have this type of issue.

Big Mac · Nov 16, 2003, 12:52 AM

Does this affect every OS X release or just Panther?

SSharon · Nov 16, 2003, 01:12 AM

is this just an issue with safari or with any app?

SYN · Nov 16, 2003, 06:56 AM

Seems to happen on all Cocoa apps. I can't reproduce it with GraphicConverter, but Safari and TextEdit reproduce it easily.

I'll try Norton of Data Rescue. Can't seem to make Prosoft's demo dl work though

Thanks guys.

Morenix · Nov 16, 2003, 01:01 PM

if you're working fast, and do a mistake with Command+C and then when the save dialog appears u press Command+V and Enter. Did you expect the lost your data?

Very, very serious bug.

Yesterday i found something with the textedit. if your cocoa app reaches the dock, when you call the Command+S (with an expanded save dialog) - if you press ESC in the middle of the sheet animation, the sheet will leave incorrectly. also, the app will quit unexpectedly.

fortepianissimo · Nov 16, 2003, 02:26 PM

Originally posted by Morenix:

Yesterday i found something with the textedit. if your cocoa app reaches the dock, when you call the Command+S (with an expanded save dialog) - if you press ESC in the middle of the sheet animation, the sheet will leave incorrectly. also, the app will quit unexpectedly.

Confirmed here - looks like there're really some rough edges hidden behind...

Love Calm Quiet · Nov 17, 2003, 02:45 PM

:bump:
This is making the front page of MacNN, and I'd like to see some further testing by brave souls...
For myself, I appreciate being warned but am not about to *seek* to reproduce the effect. Has the buffer overflow seemed to cause any other disruption? Has anyone successfully reclaimed all the "lost" files in the replaced folder?

SYN · Nov 17, 2003, 03:05 PM

Has the buffer overflow seemed to cause any other disruption? Has anyone successfully reclaimed all the "lost" files in the replaced folder?

All it does is replace the parent folder with the file you're trying to save. There probably is some way to exploit this as a security vulnerability.

I managed to reclaim some of the lost files with Data Rescue X, not all of them though, and some are corrupted beyond repair.

It has been confirmed on the ars forums:

Linky

BLAZE_MkIV · Nov 17, 2003, 03:58 PM

Wouldn't this be a problem with cocoa not with Panther?