Bug #12301: Path Check Causes Overhead and Unwanted and Unnecessary Warnings By Default

• Status: Rejected
• Assignee: -
• Target version: -
• ruby -v: ruby 2.0.0p648 (2015-12-16 revision 53162) [universal.x86_64-darwin15]; but also exists on ruby 2.3.0p0 (2015-12-25 revision 53290) [x86_64-darwin15]
• Backport: 2.1: UNKNOWN, 2.2: UNKNOWN, 2.3: UNKNOWN

[Coder-256 (Jacob G)]

The title says it all. My solution is to disable path checking by default by defining ENABLE_PATH_CHECK as 1 by default, but allowing it to be manually enabled via a configure or runtime flag.

Currently it is only disabled on "DOS-ish" systems or Cygwin.

I have always known about this problem and just ignored it, but now it's becoming too much. Here's the log output from when I try to update HomeBrew's (an application that uses Ruby) cache:

$ brew update
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.0/usr/lib/ruby/2.0.0/universal-darwin15/rbconfig.rb:213: warning: Insecure world writable dir /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin in PATH, mode 040777
Updated 2 taps (homebrew/python, homebrew/x11).
==> New Formulae
homebrew/x11/nedit
==> Updated Formulae
homebrew/python/numpy ✔    homebrew/x11/i3status      homebrew/x11/tiger-vnc   
homebrew/python/pillow     homebrew/x11/rxvt-unicode  homebrew/x11/xastir

Not fun. Why was it checking random directories like /Applications/, anyway?! Even then, why recursively?!?!?! Homebrew never even touches /Applications/ during the update process! It is just adding useless warnings and overhead. What is a regular user expected to do when they see an error like this? Most users probably don't know what it means. Even more users will probably never do anything about it, anyway (aside from looking up how to get around it). What are the motives behind recursively and repetitively checking the user's directories and spitting out confusing errors?!

[nobu (Nobuyoshi Nakada)]

• Status changed from Open to Third Party's Issue

Why was it checking random directories like /Applications/, anyway?!

Not random.
It's because your PATH environment variable contains that directory.
Change the directory's permission, chmod go-w /Applications/Cocos/tools/ant/bin.

Even then, why recursively?!?!?!

It's because Apple modified the rbconfig.rb to run xcode-select for each time requiring it.

[shyouhei (Shyouhei Urabe)]

I think this isn't even a third party's issue. The warning is because of OP's insecure PATH setting, which is not an Apple's fault.

[nobu (Nobuyoshi Nakada)]

• Status changed from Third Party's Issue to Rejected

I meant that "Cocos" application's fault, by "third party's issue".