Re: [BUG] NTFS code doesn't sanitize folder names sufficiently

[Chris Jones]

Marian Beermann wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> today I noticed some very odd behaviour, which could lead people to 
> believe a loss of data, because it is possible to create directories 
> with backslashes in them.
>
> I am currently running kernel 3.5.
>
> To completly reproduce the problem to the full extend you'll need a 
> Windows computer, but to see whats wrong Linux completly suffices :-)
>
> On a Linux computer
> 1. Create a directory named TestA on an NTFS partition
> 2. Create a subdirectory of TestA named TestB
> 3. Create a third directory alongside TestA named TestA\TestB (the 
> fundamental problem is this: backslashes in directory names)
>
> Connect the drive containing the NTFS partition now to a Windows 
> computer and navigate to the directory containing TestA and 
> TestA\TestB. If you navigate to the folder (not path!) TestA\TestB 
> you'll actually see the contents of the path TestA\TestB (the 
> subfolder TestB) and not the contents of the directory.
> It is not possible on a Windows machine to access the contents of the 
> directory named TestA\TestB. This is not a bug in Windows, it's caused 
> by a bug in the NTFS driver, which allows illegal characters.
>
> The solution to this would be to disallow creation of files and 
> folders on NTFS drives containing illegal characters.
>
> Best regards
> Marian Beermann

Yeah that's a tough one. I wouldn't exactly call it a bug. There's 
probably lots of stuff like this you could do that the command line 
would allow you to perform but not be a correct and intended function. I 
would put this down to user error rather than a bug. Anyone with 
knowledge of operating systems and file system structuring should know 
that / or \ are illegal characters for creating a directories. Whether 
it be on Windows or Linux.


Regards

--
		Chris Jones @ kernel.devproject@xxxxxxxxx
also on oracle.kerneldev@xxxxxxxxx and netbsd.kerneldev@xxxxxxxxx

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