AppImage/AppImageKit

appimagetool follows symlinks outside of the AppImage for determining architecture

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#546 opened on Nov 26, 2017

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buggood first issue

Description

/home/me/squashfs-root/opt/cxoffice/support/apps.com.qq.im.light/dosdevices/f:/boot/grub/x86_64-efi/test.mod used for determining architecture x86_64
/home/me/squashfs-root/opt/cxoffice/support/apps.com.qq.im.light/dosdevices/f:/boot/grub/x86_64-efi/lspci.mod used for determining architecture x86_64
/home/me/squashfs-root/opt/cxoffice/support/apps.com.qq.im.light/dosdevices/f:/boot/grub/x86_64-efi/usb_keyboard.mod used for determining architecture x86_64
/home/me/squashfs-root/opt/cxoffice/support/apps.com.qq.im.light/dosdevices/f:/boot/grub/x86_64-efi/hexdump.mod used for determining architecture x86_64
/home/me/squashfs-root/opt/cxoffice/support/apps.com.qq.im.light/dosdevices/f:/boot/grub/x86_64-efi/true.mod used for determining architecture x86_64
/home/me/squashfs-root/opt/cxoffice/support/apps.com.qq.im.light/dosdevices/f:/boot/grub/x86_64-efi/usbserial_common.mod used for determining architecture x86_64

@teras when packaging an AppImage that contains a WINEPREFIX which links outside of the AppImage, then it tries to determine architectures outside of the AppImage.

It should not follow symlinks to determine the architecture, let alone symlinks that point to the outside of the AppImage.

Contributor guide

Tech stack
c
Domain
desktoptooling
Issue type
bug
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
C programmingunderstanding of symlinksfamiliarity with AppImage tooling
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
40
Research direction
The issue is in appimagetool's architecture detection logic. The tool currently reads ELF files to determine architecture but follows symlinks, including those pointing outside the AppImage. The fix should ensure that symlinks are not followed when scanning for ELF files. Look in the appimagetool source code (likely in src/ or similar) for functions that traverse the filesystem to find ELF files. Modify them to skip symlinks or to not follow them. Check existing comments or linked PRs for additional context.