Using TCP vs pipes

[derekschrock]

Are there any security issues with using localhost/TCP for ICP with with 4.x release? In theory could a local user write/talk to the open connection or does bear have some type of auth/handshake that make this less of an issue? Assuming I don't have any thing wrong with the previous questions, would a unix pipe if the platform supports it be better and only use TCP if needed?

[rizsotto]

Good questions @derekschrock . I'm not an expert in security. There is no auth implemented for IPC. (Previous versions of this project also had no auth for gRPC or temp directory.) Could use Unix sockets, but that's specific to Unix, meaning: one more implementation of the sender/receiver, and still have to keep the TCP one for Windows. (Did strike for simplicity for this early release.)

[derekschrock]

Does Windows 10+ support Unix sockets?

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/commandline/af_unix-comes-to-windows/

Would rust support this?

[rizsotto]

https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/os/unix/net/struct.UnixStream.html
https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/os/windows/index.html

I don't think it has... the first link is about the UNIX package, which contains the UNIX socket type. The second link is the windows extensions, which does not have anything like that. :/

[derekschrock]

Support appears to have been merged in development branch however it's locked behind a feature flag? rust-lang/rust#150487

It appears others while they wait for the feature to be fully supported are using https://crates.io/crates/uds_windows