__proto__ security

[Geoffrey Sneddon]

On 13/02/12 17:55, Allen Wirfs-Brock wrote:
> Let's try to get this back to concrete issues that I can incorporate into a specification.
>
> The current draft is at http://wiki.ecmascript.org/lib/exe/fetch.php?id=strawman%3Amagic_proto_property&cache=cache&media=harmony:draft_proto_spec_rev2.pdf
>
> Gavin and Oliver seem to really want to use an accessor for  Object.prototype.__proto__

On the whole this is my preference too, as it practically eliminates 
special-casing for the __proto__ property, which on the whole I'm in 
favour of.

I've basically implemented something close to what is attributed to Dave 
Herman on the wiki in Carakan now, albeit without the context check, 
though I agree it's a good idea. I wonder if it's web-compatible to 
disallow cross-context prototype chains (both through __proto__ and 
Object.create).

> Brendan has expressed a willingness to accepting under specify some the Object.prototype.__proto__ property in ways that we normally wouldn't for mandatory parts of the specification.
>
> I could accommodate these two perspective by changing the first paragraph of the draft B.3.1.1 to read:
>
> The __proto__ property of the Object prototype property initially has the attributes {[[Enumerable]]: false, [[Configurable]]: true}.  The state of other attributes and whether it is an accessor or data property is implementation defined.
>
> This would allow implementations to use either a data property or a access property for Object.prototype.__proto__.  However, the internal method extensions are still needed in order to define the semantics in a manner that allows either implementation approach to be used.

I'm with Mark on this: I'd much rather see there be (rough) consensus on 
this than divergent implementations.

The one thing I would prefer, however, would be that the setter is 
optional (i.e., it is permissible to have __proto__ have just a getter 
or have both a getter and a setter, but not just a setter).

-- 
Geoffrey Sneddon — Opera Software
<http://gsnedders.com>
<http://opera.com>