Re: [NSE] Script Dependencies Replacement for Runlevels

[Ron <ron () skullsecurity net>]

David Fifield wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 10, 2009 at 09:25:16AM -0600, Ron wrote:
> That's a pretty good example. How do you see your script being invoked.
> I can think of a few options. Below when I say "list all scripts" I mean
> you can name the scripts individually or by category with --script, or
> have them selected automatically by being in the default category.
>
> 1. You have to list all scripts, including dependencies, or Nmap will
>    stop with an error.
> 2. If a dependency for a script is not listed, that script just won't
>    run even if you asked for it.
> 3. Nmap won't run if not all dependencies are listed, but there is an
>    option to automatically include any required dependencies.
> 4. Same as #2, with an option to automatically add dependencies.
> 5. Required dependencies are always added automatically; you may have
>    scripts run that you didn't ask for specifically.
I'm not sure which is best, really.

Personally, I dislike the idea of running scripts the user didn't ask
for, unless the user specifically says "run extra scripts to meet
dependencies". Otherwise, they don't necessarily know what they're
getting themselves into. http-spider.nse will probably be a long and
slow script, so running it without notifying the user is a little sketchy.

I hope some day the scripting will be more tightly integrated into
Zenmap, and Zenmap can automate a lot of the dependency stuff. That's
probably a long way off, though.

> Yeah--we should have some standard place in the registry where we can
> store such things.
>
> I think solving the *login problem could use some more discussion, but I
> don't want it to stand in the way of this patch being integrated.
> Patrick's implementation of dependencies is better than runlevel, and
> this limitation is academic because it wouldn't break anything we're
> doing now. I think it's worth thinking about, though.
Agreed.

Ron

-- 
Ron Bowes
http://www.skullsecurity.org/
_______________________________________________
Sent through the nmap-dev mailing list
http://cgi.insecure.org/mailman/listinfo/nmap-dev
Archived at http://seclists.org/nmap-dev/