Revision control
Copy as Markdown
// Copyright (C) 2026 The Qt Company Ltd.
// SPDX-License-Identifier: LicenseRef-Qt-Commercial OR GFDL-1.3-no-invariants-only
/*!
\page qtpositioning-security.html
\title Qt Positioning Security Considerations
\ingroup security-considerations
\brief How to prevent security problems when using Qt Positioning.
This page highlights potential security issues that can arise when using
the module and suggests how to avoid them.
\section1 Plugins
The module uses a \l {Qt Positioning Plugins}{plugin system} to select a
backend at runtime. This selection can be based either on the platform or on
an explicit request from the application.
\section2 Prevent loading malicious plugins
The plugin system gives an attacker an opportunity to get a malicious plugin
loaded into the application. Because a plugin is a shared library running in
the application's process, it can execute arbitrary code with the
application's privileges.
The \l {Deploying Plugins#The Plugin Directory}{Qt plugins documentation}
gives an overview of how plugins are located and loaded, and of what
affects the lookup paths. Making sure that no untrusted plugin is
reachable through those paths is the responsibility of the application
developer. When deploying an application, verify that:
\list
\li The Qt installation and application directories cannot be modified
by untrusted users.
\li If the application uses a \c {qt.conf} file, its contents are
correct, and untrusted users cannot modify the file.
\li Untrusted parties cannot control the process environment, because
variables such as \c {QT_PLUGIN_PATH} extend the plugin lookup
paths.
\endlist
An application can also call \l {QCoreApplication::setLibraryPaths()} at
startup to set the lookup paths explicitly. The paths set this way still
need to be protected from modification by untrusted users.
\section2 Avoid test mode in production
To keep automated tests deterministic, the module ignores all production
plugins when the \c {QT_QTESTLIB_RUNNING} environment variable is set. As a
result, no position or satellite source is available to the application.
Make sure that this variable is not set in a production environment.
*/