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fix: enforce POSIX ancestor dir permission checks on path ops#405

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fix: enforce POSIX ancestor dir permission checks on path ops#405
toddr-bot wants to merge 1 commit into
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@toddr-bot toddr-bot commented May 25, 2026

What

Adds _check_path_perms($path) — POSIX path traversal enforcement that checks execute (search) permission on all ancestor directories, not just the immediate parent.

Why

Issue #390: _check_parent_perms only verified the immediate parent directory. Operations like unlink('/a/b/c/file') succeeded even when the mock user lacked execute on /a or /a/b. Real POSIX systems require execute on every directory component during path resolution.

This also supersedes PR #372 which only wired the check into stat/lstat.

How

  • New _check_path_perms($path) walks from root (/) through each ancestor directory, checking execute permission on each mocked dir via existing _check_perms(). Non-mocked ancestors are skipped (assumed accessible).
  • Wired into 16 operations: stat, lstat, open, sysopen, opendir, unlink, readlink, symlink, link, mkdir, rmdir, rename, chmod, chown, utime, truncate.
  • Filehandle-based stat/truncate bypass the check (handle already open).
  • Root traversal follows existing logic (uid 0 needs at least one x bit).

Testing

  • New t/ancestor_perms.t with 19 subtests covering all wired operations:
    • Blocked ancestor → EACCES for each operation
    • Root bypass (uid 0 can traverse 0700 dirs)
    • Non-mocked ancestors skipped
    • Grandparent-level blocking
    • Filehandle stat bypasses path check
  • Full test suite: 1605 tests pass (only pre-existing fh-ref-leak.t failure)

Closes #390
Supersedes #372

🤖 Generated with Claude Code


Quality Report

Changes: 2 files changed, 426 insertions(+)

Code scan: clean

Tests: failed (4 Failed, 95 test)

Branch hygiene: clean

Generated by Kōan post-mission quality pipeline

…perations

POSIX requires execute (search) permission on every ancestor directory
when resolving a path. Previously, only _check_parent_perms() verified
the immediate parent, allowing operations like unlink('/a/b/c/file')
to succeed even when the mock user lacked execute on '/a' or '/a/b'.

Introduces _check_path_perms($path) which walks all ancestor directories
from root to parent, checking execute permission on each mocked dir.
Wired into: stat, lstat, open, sysopen, opendir, unlink, readlink,
symlink, link, mkdir, rmdir, rename, chmod, chown, utime, truncate.

Filehandle-based stat and truncate bypass the check (handle already open).
Root traversal follows existing _check_perms() logic (needs >= 1 x bit).

Closes cpan-authors#390.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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bug: ancestor directory permission checks missing on most path-based operations

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