[xsl] How to circumvent read-only permission

["Roger L Costello costello@xxxxxxxxx" <xsl-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Michael Kay wrote:

> I've certainly seen (and written) real applications in which
> xsl:evaluate (or equivalent) was used to evaluate XPath
> expressions read from cells in Excel spreadsheets. The
> operating system has no idea this is going on, so the
> distinction between read permission and execute
> permission is meaningless.

Wow!

Let me be sure that I understand the full implications of this.

Consider this scenario: We have an XML document that, for whatever reason,
must be read-only. It must not be written to (no write permission) and it must
not be executed (no execute permission). The operating system understands this
and will enforce this.

However, if the XML document contains XPath expressions, then the XSLT program
that is reading the XML document can read the XPath expressions and execute
them using xsl:evaluate. So, in a sense, the XML document is being executed.
And, the operating system has no idea that the XML document is being executed
and no way to prevent it.

This is a way to circumvent the operating system's enforcement of read-only
permission.

Do I understand correctly? Have I described the full implications of this
scenario or is there more to be learned from the scenario? Or is Michael
alluding to some other scenario?

/Roger