James Muller writes:
> Have there been any cases of malicious code being distributed
> via Stata plugins? Too easy to track the author, perhaps.
> It would be just so easy to do bad things with Mata or plugins.
> Could even do it so the program gets over-written with something
> innocent-looking afterwards.
>
> Is it just me or does this seem like an extremely vulnerable point
> regarding Stata?
This concern over mata and/or plugins surprises me a little,
mainly because it has always been possible to write malicious code
into an .ado file. Perhaps the only difference is that ado code
must remain visible while mata code can be hidden and plugin code
is hidden.
In my 11 years of using Stata, I cannot recall a single instance
of intended or even accidental malicious ado code (and I extend
my personal thanks to this amazing group of honorable and benevolent
writers of Stata code). Nonetheless, it is always appropriate
to use caution when you get anything for free!
I suspect that the number of Stata users is simply too limited
(say relative to MS Windows) to attract vicious programmers...
They likely can't do enough harm relative to the effort involved
to make them happy. (This logic also applies to the supposedly
safer Mac world.)
Tom
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