Ask HN: What systems allow remote code execution as a feature?

#1

Post by sbensu » Mon, Aug 06, 2018, 4:10 AM UTC

I recently learned of Telescript[1], a programming language, design to allow clients to execute arbitrary code on servers.

SQL databases also have a similar architecture, with the code being executed being much more restrained but still powerful.

What other systems were designed with remote code execution as a feature?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telescript_(programming_language) and I got it from this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLF7yfXFmUk

Re: Ask HN: What systems allow remote code execution as a feature?

#2

Post by Someone » Mon, Aug 06, 2018, 6:26 AM UTC

The combination of scp/ssh.

dtrace, if you consider the kernel to be ‘remote’.

The Voyager spacecrafts (in general, unassisted remote firmware update is a form of remote code execution)

#3

Post by noahlt » Mon, Aug 06, 2018, 7:42 PM UTC

I’ve heard that early versions of the Dropbox client allowed engineers to remotely open a Python shell on users’ computers, for debugging purposes.