fix(nesdoctor): cmd re-parsed the submit URL and destroyed every Windows result

Two submissions arrived carrying `v=0.2.0` and nothing else. Flagged from the
channel, not caught by us.

The Windows arm of `open_in_browser` was `cmd /C start "" <url>`. `cmd.exe`
re-parses its own command line and treats `&` as a command separator; Rust's
`Command` quotes arguments for the MSVC C runtime convention, which `cmd` does
not honour. So the URL was cut at its first `&` -- which in ours falls
immediately after `v=` -- and the browser opened

    https://doctor.nestri.io/?v=0.2.0

carrying nothing whatsoever. Reproduced exactly with the same mechanism in a
POSIX shell: `sh -c 'echo <url>'` unquoted prints precisely that prefix.

Every Windows user who pressed Enter lost their entire report, and lost it
silently -- the page returned 200 and thanked them. Windows is most of this
audience, so most of the data we would ever have collected was going to
disappear this way.

Now `rundll32 url.dll,FileProtocolHandler`, which hands the URL to the shell's
protocol handler with no command interpreter anywhere in the path, so nothing
re-parses it. `explorer.exe` also opens URLs and was rejected: it returns a
non-zero exit status even on success, which would make the caller believe it
had failed and fall through.

The relay now also refuses to thank anyone for a version-only arrival, since an
older binary keeps producing them and a URL pasted into a shell unquoted does
the same thing.

Version to 0.2.1.
This commit is contained in:
Wanjohi
2026-09-02 15:50:47 +03:00
parent 19e1bf4152
commit a7eeb14de5
3 changed files with 24 additions and 5 deletions

2
Cargo.lock generated
View File

@@ -2462,7 +2462,7 @@ dependencies = [
[[package]]
name = "nesdoctor"
version = "0.2.0"
version = "0.2.1"
dependencies = [
"anyhow",
"clap",

View File

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
[package]
name = "nesdoctor"
version = "0.2.0"
version = "0.2.1"
edition.workspace = true
license.workspace = true
repository.workspace = true

View File

@@ -641,11 +641,30 @@ pub fn submit_contents(steam: &SteamReport, answers: &Answers) -> Vec<&'static s
/// Hand a URL to whatever the desktop uses to open links.
pub fn open_in_browser(url: &str) -> bool {
use std::process::{Command, Stdio};
// NEVER route this through `cmd`.
//
// The Windows arm used to be `cmd /C start "" <url>` and it destroyed every
// Windows submission we received. `cmd.exe` re-parses its own command line
// and treats `&` as a command separator; Rust's `Command` quotes arguments
// for the MSVC C runtime convention, which `cmd` does not honour. So a URL
// is cut at its first `&` -- which in ours falls immediately after `v=` --
// and the browser opened `https://doctor.nestri.io/?v=0.2.0` carrying
// nothing else at all.
//
// Silently, too: the worker saw a version, accepted it, and thanked the
// person for a submission that contained one field. Two arrived like that
// before anyone noticed.
//
// `rundll32 url.dll,FileProtocolHandler` hands the URL to the shell's
// protocol handler without any command interpreter in the path, so nothing
// re-parses it. `explorer.exe` also works and returns a non-zero exit
// status even on success, which would make the caller think it failed.
let attempts: [(&str, &[&str]); 4] = [
("xdg-open", &[]),
("open", &[]), // macOS
("cmd", &["/C", "start", ""]), // Windows
("wslview", &[]), // WSL, where xdg-open is often absent
("open", &[]), // macOS
("rundll32", &["url.dll,FileProtocolHandler"]), // Windows
("wslview", &[]), // WSL, where xdg-open is often absent
];
for (cmd, args) in attempts {
if Command::new(cmd)