[flutter/dart] Is it possible to ask for permission for dangerous operations for Flutter contributors

Use case

Background: #186412

It is scary that a random Flutter script can nuke folders like ~/Desktop. The damage is real - in my case, I lost my repos (with a few local branches that I didn't push), but it could have been worse for other contributors.

Proposal

I wonder if it is possible to limit what flutter/dart can do, and explicitly ask for permission for dangerous operations like this. As a flutter contributor, I'd appreciate this kind of protection.

#186412 is not a tool issue, its a script issue in flutter/dev/devicelab/bin/tasks/module_uiscene_test_ios.dart

I think it should just create a new, temporary folder in the target folder, and clean that up.

#186412 is not a tool issue, its a script issue in flutter/dev/devicelab/bin/tasks/module_uiscene_test_ios.dart

I think it should just create a new, temporary folder in the target folder, and clean that up.

While this is definitely a script issue, I think it also highlights a broader security risk. Adding an extra layer of safety within flutter/dart tooling itself would protect users and CI systems from similar, potentially catastrophic file-system accidents caused by other scripts down the road.

@hellohuanlin

@hellohuanlin Thanks for the proposal. Routing to team-tool to investigate further.

In theory, this is something that we can try and do. We can setup IOOverrides for the test environment and ensure that all file system operations occur under $TMP. I'm not sure if that would have any unintended consequences or not.

The only way to be completely safe would be to run everything in a proper sandbox.

[flutter_tools, devicelab] Fix filesystem safety guard unit test inte…

[flutter_tools, devicelab] Add safety filesystem guard to tests

[flutter_tools, devicelab] Fix filesystem safety guard unit test inte…

I think it also highlights a broader security risk.

Running native code is always a security risk. While Ben's work is adding some guardrails, anyone can create a pr that removes them and tries to run code outside of the project/test (hence the CICD label).

I wonder if it is possible to limit what flutter/dart can do, and explicitly ask for permission for dangerous operations like this. As a flutter contributor, I'd appreciate this kind of protection.

This would break so many things.

[flutter_tools, devicelab] Address review comments for filesystem guard

[flutter_tools, devicelab] Add safety filesystem guard to tests (flut…

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[flutter/dart] Is it possible to ask for permission for dangerous operations for Flutter contributors #186419

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[flutter/dart] Is it possible to ask for permission for dangerous operations for Flutter contributors #186419

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jtmcdole commented on May 13, 2026

hellohuanlin commented on May 13, 2026

saurabh-mirajkar commented on May 13, 2026

bkonyi commented on May 19, 2026

jtmcdole commented on May 26, 2026

github-actions commented on Jul 14, 2026

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