[exim-dev] proactive exploit mitigation patches

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Author: Ryan Castellucci
Date:  
To: exim-dev
Subject: [exim-dev] proactive exploit mitigation patches
Hi,

I wanted to share some simple patches I've written for Exim that make
exploitation of string expansion more difficult.

The first one adds a config option to globally disable "${run {...}}":

https://gist.github.com/ryancdotorg/2643c2662a7e0f7554ecec295fb23c0c

This hooks up a global "forbid_run" option up to some existing
mechanisms
to disable the functionality. It is off by default.

The second one doesn't have a config option, but simply adds global
restrictions to the "${perl {...}}" expansion to disable "private by
convention" functions (those that start with "_"), and access to
non-exported functions of modules that are in use.

https://gist.github.com/ryancdotorg/a5e66b3457e0297d70d28bc28648e531

This may benefit from being put behind a config option since in a small
number of cases may break existing configs. Having it throw a warning if
not enabled would probably be appropriate, though.

I welcome any feedback on these proposed changes.

-Ryan