Question

Let’s say I have: sample.c

int main (...) {

  char str*;

  get s through user input

  test(str);

  return 0;

}

void test (str) {

   copy str to new file 

   change file permissions on new file

   close file

}

There’s no possibility of a race condition here since I have no threads in my main() method. Is that true?

Answer 1

There is a kind of race condition in that the user can exchange “new file” immediately before you change permissions of “new file”. This is (was?) an often used security exploit.

I just see that Neil Butterworth had a related idea.