Skip to content

Represent original inode numbers (or make it possible to detect recursive symbolic links) #469

Description

@crackwitz

I mapped an entire host. It appears that some of those directory structures are self-referential. See below.

The problem now is that this is not reflected in any way on the mapped drive letter. Those inodes are entirely unique and there is no other indication that these directories are symbolic links or other links. See below.

This causes some third party tool to endlessly descend into this recursive structure. It could ordinarily detect the situation, if given data that actually represents the situation.

I believe if the inode numbers weren't seemingly randomly generated, but actually corresponded (in some way) to the host's actual inode numbers, then the same directory would have the same inode number, and such tools could abort their descent.

user@host /usr/bin/X11 % stat .
  File: .
  Size: 36864           Blocks: 80         IO Block: 4096   directory
Device: fd01h/64769d    Inode: 1048862     Links: 2
Access: (0755/drwxr-xr-x)  Uid: (    0/    root)   Gid: (    0/    root)
Access: 2026-01-02 12:19:09.281501542 +0100
Modify: 2025-11-13 17:53:47.311366097 +0100
Change: 2025-11-13 17:53:47.311366097 +0100
 Birth: 2019-01-22 20:46:57.913220000 +0100
user@host /usr/bin/X11 % stat ./X11
  File: ./X11 -> .
  Size: 1               Blocks: 0          IO Block: 4096   symbolic link
Device: fd01h/64769d    Inode: 1061910     Links: 1
Access: (0777/lrwxrwxrwx)  Uid: (    0/    root)   Gid: (    0/    root)
Access: 2026-01-02 18:49:20.635875970 +0100
Modify: 2017-05-03 11:38:16.000000000 +0200
Change: 2019-01-22 22:45:08.267473162 +0100
 Birth: 2019-01-22 22:45:08.259473162 +0100
user@host /usr/bin/X11 % stat ./X11/X11
  File: ./X11/X11 -> .
  Size: 1               Blocks: 0          IO Block: 4096   symbolic link
Device: fd01h/64769d    Inode: 1061910     Links: 1
Access: (0777/lrwxrwxrwx)  Uid: (    0/    root)   Gid: (    0/    root)
Access: 2026-01-02 18:49:20.635875970 +0100
Modify: 2017-05-03 11:38:16.000000000 +0200
Change: 2019-01-22 22:45:08.267473162 +0100
 Birth: 2019-01-22 22:45:08.259473162 +0100
user@host /usr/bin/X11 %
Z:\usr\bin\X11>stat .
  File: .
  Size: 0               Blocks: 36         IO Block: 65536  directory
Device: 14f0583eh/351295550d    Inode: 11286489447583759167  Links: 1
Access: (0755/drwxr-xr-x)  Uid: (197610/   Chris)   Gid: (197121/    Kein)
Access: 2026-01-02 12:19:09.000000000 +0100
Modify: 2025-11-13 17:53:47.000000000 +0100
Change: 2025-11-13 17:53:47.000000000 +0100
 Birth: -

Z:\usr\bin\X11>stat .\X11
  File: .\X11
  Size: 0               Blocks: 36         IO Block: 65536  directory
Device: 14f0583eh/351295550d    Inode: 6404748780561138043  Links: 1
Access: (0755/drwxr-xr-x)  Uid: (197610/   Chris)   Gid: (197121/    Kein)
Access: 2026-01-02 12:19:09.000000000 +0100
Modify: 2025-11-13 17:53:47.000000000 +0100
Change: 2025-11-13 17:53:47.000000000 +0100
 Birth: -

Z:\usr\bin\X11>stat .\X11\X11
  File: .\X11\X11
  Size: 0               Blocks: 36         IO Block: 65536  directory
Device: 14f0583eh/351295550d    Inode: 9794400630241004471  Links: 1
Access: (0755/drwxr-xr-x)  Uid: (197610/   Chris)   Gid: (197121/    Kein)
Access: 2026-01-02 12:19:09.000000000 +0100
Modify: 2025-11-13 17:53:47.000000000 +0100
Change: 2025-11-13 17:53:47.000000000 +0100
 Birth: -

Z:\usr\bin\X11>

Activity

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

No one assigned

    Labels

    No labels
    No labels

    Type

    No type

    Projects

    No projects

      Milestone

      No milestone

      Relationships

      None yet

      Development

      No branches or pull requests

      Issue actions