Comment 3 for bug 1991839

I reviewed ruby-childprocess 4.1.0-1 as checked into kinetic. This shouldn't be considered a full audit but rather a quick gauge of maintainability.

> Cross-platform Ruby library for managing child processes.

- CVE History:
  - none
    - CVE-2021-23352 is not related to Ruby or ruby-childprocess
  - upstream GitHub issue tracker is extremely well maintained
  - no Security Policy and no contact info in README
- Build-Depends?
  - lunar main
     - debhelper-compat (debhelper)
     - glibc (locales-all)
     - procps
  - lunar universe
     - gem2deb
     - ruby-rspec
     - ruby-coveralls
     - ruby-ffi
     - yard
- pre/post inst/rm scripts?
  - none
- init scripts?
  - none
- systemd units?
  - none
- dbus services?
  - none
- setuid binaries?
  - none
- binaries in PATH?
  - none
- sudo fragments?
  - none
- polkit files?
  - none
- udev rules?
  - none
- unit tests / autopkgtests?
  - has autopkgtests
    - passing for >= jammy
  - contains some build tests
- cron jobs?
  - cron
- Build logs:
  - nothing significant

- Processes spawned?
  - childprocess has many process functions
    - e.g.,
      - ./lib/childprocess.rb defines close_on_exec()
      - ./lib/childprocess/unix/fork_exec_process.rb
      - ./lib/childprocess/unix/posix_spawn_process.rb
  - exit result checks could be added
    - e.g., will a forked process run properly if @io or @cwd are false?
      - these modules _should_ exist, what happens when `if` statements are removed
  - generator.rb's execute() compiles arbitrary C code
    - assuming this is trusted input
    - downstream MIRs must be check if input is safe
  - otherwise looks okay
- Memory management?
  - heavy use of FFI
  - commit d9b1580 is for Rubinus only
  - allocating memory size appears safe
- File IO?
  - FileActions class wraps file IO functions
    - part of library
  - PosixSpawnProcess and Generator class' file use looks safe
- Logging?
  - raises FFI errors where pertinent
  - errors defined in lib/childprocess/errors.rb
- Environment variable usage?
  - env variables are managed when forking processes
  - generator reads CC
- Use of privileged functions?
  - none
- Use of cryptography / random number sources etc?
  - none
- Use of temp files?
  - none
- Use of networking?
  - none
- Use of WebKit?
  - none
- Use of PolicyKit?
  - none

- Any significant cppcheck results?
  - none
- Any significant Coverity results?
  - none
- Any significant shellcheck results?
  - none
- Any significant bandit results?
  - none
- Any significant rubocop results?
  - none
    - rubocop complains about eval in spec files

Project is well maintained. Some error message include a url asking users to file GitHub issues, +1

Many functions, such as close_on_exec(), support using jruby. jruby is listed as a requirement in upstream's README. It is not part of the d/control. Files dedicated to jruby in ruby-childprocess require java. Comments in the code mention that jruby has edgecases that need to be handled. jruby exclusive code was not reviewed. I tested a patch that removed lib/childprocess/jruby* and it built--no further testing was attempting. Please consider removing jruby.

ruby-childprocess' generator.rb is dangerous in the same way that ruby-ffi is. Each effectively provides a C compiler at runtime. It would be great if this feature was not needed.

Security team ACK for promoting ruby-childprocess to main.