openssh bugs - Jul 2004 - [Bug 891] possible problem with non-printing characters during scp copy

http://bugzilla.mindrot.org/show_bug.cgi?id=891

           Summary: possible problem with non-printing characters during scp
                    copy
           Product: Portable OpenSSH
           Version: 3.6.1p2
          Platform: ix86
        OS/Version: Linux
            Status: NEW
          Severity: normal
          Priority: P2
         Component: scp
        AssignedTo: openssh-bugs at mindrot.org
        ReportedBy: dogbert at netnevada.net


Hello,

System:  Red Hat Workstation Edition
Kernel:  Linux content 2.4.21-15.0.2.ELcustom #2 SMP Sun Jun 27 10:04:31 PDT 
2004 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
OpenSSH: [content at content content]$ rpm -q openssh

version is openssh-3.6.1p2-33.30.1

   I encountered a problem which might be a bug in 'scp' when attempting
to do
a recursive copy of files from a existing linux system onto a new linux ystem.  
The problem happened when the 'scp' reached a directory which had a 
file '???.HTM' in it, and the scp aborted with the following message:

Protocol Control Error

I attempted to repeat the 'scp' the next day, and it died out in the
same
directory as the previous day, with the same error message.  I tried to remove 
the file in question, but 'rm' wouldn't allow me to, so I used
'rm -i *.HTM' so
that I would be asked about each file in the directory one at a time, when it 
got to the '???.HTM', it showed that the file was actually 
\n\r\n.HTM (and the rm -i allowed me to remove it)

after this file was removed, I ran the scp again the following day, and the job 
completed normally without any errors at all.

If you need more information, please email me at dogbert at netnevada.net

Bill Parker



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http://bugzilla.mindrot.org/show_bug.cgi?id=891





------- Additional Comments From dtucker at zip.com.au  2004-07-04 16:14 -------
Created an attachment (id=680)
 --> (http://bugzilla.mindrot.org/attachment.cgi?id=680&action=view)
Encode newlines in filename for scp transfer

It looks like the sending scp bails on the file because the name contains a
newline (inside the protocol the file details are sent as "Cmodes size
name\n"
so there's no way to encode a literal newline into a filename).  When the
sending scp bails, the receiving scp gets out of sync and drops the connection.


We could do something like the attached which encodes them as printable chars. 
The file will transfer but the name will be wrong.

On the other hand, the scp protocol is obsolete and has unfixable limitations,
it might not be worth fiddling with it any more.

If anyone wants to play with this, try:
mkdir /tmp/tmp1
perl -e 'open(a, ">/tmp/tmp1/t\n\r\n.HTM")'; 
scp -r /tmp/tmp1 localhost:/tmp/tmp2




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