We are using embedded cpython as a scripting language in our app. We are modifying our sys.path at startup to make sure that we don't execute code from outside our app, but a user with a sitecustomize.py in their PYTHONPATH is causing code to execute before we have a chance to fix sys.path, and we believe their code has a hard crash (not an exception, which site.py will catch and handle gracefully). I believe the correct fix is to simply clear the PYTHONPATH variable from the environment before we initialize python, but I can't test it properly because I can't recreate the problem. The simplest way I've found is using ctypes to write to memory, such as: import ctypes p = (ctypes.c_char).from_address(0) while True: p[0] = 0 p = p + 1 But in Python 3.5, it doesn't allow me to write to c_char types, giving the error "TypeError: 'c_char' object does not support item assignment". I've tried a few of the methods available in https://wiki.python.org/moin/CrashingPython to no avail. Is there a reliable way to crash python 3.5 from pure Python code? Continue reading...
