Bug#661548: libyaml-libyaml-perl: FTBFS with hardening flags enabled: -Werror=format-security

[Dominic Hargreaves]

Source: libyaml-libyaml-perl
Severity: normal
Version: 0.38-1
User: debian-qa at lists.debian.org
Usertags: hardening-format-security hardening

With hardening flags enabled, this package FTBFS:

perl_libyaml.c: In function 'Load':
perl_libyaml.c:191:5: error: format not a string literal and no format arguments [-Werror=format-security]
perl_libyaml.c: In function 'load_node':
perl_libyaml.c:274:9: error: format not a string literal and no format arguments [-Werror=format-security]
perl_libyaml.c: In function 'load_mapping':
perl_libyaml.c:318:9: error: format not a string literal and no format arguments [-Werror=format-security]
perl_libyaml.c: In function 'load_sequence':
perl_libyaml.c:351:9: error: format not a string literal and no format arguments [-Werror=format-security]
cc1: some warnings being treated as errors

(this is the first error of this type seen: it's possible that there
could be others once this is fixed).

A likely fix is to change croak(var) to croak("%s", var)[1], or similar.

Note that I haven't verified whether an externally-controlled string is
used; if so, it would be appropriate to upgrade this bug RC severity
with the security tag[2].

This was found during testing of perl 5.14.2-8 in experimental; however,
since that version was prepared, it has been decided not to export
those build flags in Config_heay.pl. Nevertheless, it is likely that at
some point, either in debhelper 9 or 10, the hardening flags will be
enabled for all perl modules.

Thanks,
Dominic.

[1] <http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=657853#92>
[2] <http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=657853#117>

-- 
Dominic Hargreaves | http://www.larted.org.uk/~dom/
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