Real Python Podcast Episode #127 Title Artwork

Episode 127: Explaining Access Control Using Python & Cautiously Handling Pickles

The Real Python Podcast

Sep 30, 2022 58m

Have you ever used code to help explain a topic? How can Python scripts be used to understand the intricacies of access control? This week on the show, Christopher Trudeau is here, bringing another batch of PyCoder’s Weekly articles and projects.

Episode Sponsor:

Christopher talks about an article that explores the evolution of access control by reimplementing the concepts with Python scripts. The experiment moves across the various access forms, starting with control lists, roles, and attributes, then ending with purpose-based access control (PBAC).

We also cover a post about how to create dangerous pickles. We discuss where malicious code can hide within the serialization process and how decompiling code can be an education tool.

We share several other articles and projects from the Python community, including command line interface (CLI) creation with argparse, HTML and CSS for Python developers, a Python packaging user survey, a visual Python Tkinter GUI creator, a PyScript-based data visualization cookbook, and a project for writing functional test helpers in Django.

Course Spotlight: Serializing Objects With the Python pickle Module

In this course, you’ll learn how you can use the Python pickle module to convert your objects into a stream of bytes that can be saved to a disk or sent over a network. You’ll also learn the security implications of using this process on objects from an untrusted source.

Topics:

00:00:00 – Introduction
00:02:19 – Python 3.11.0rc2 is now available
00:03:45 – HTML and CSS for Python Developers
00:08:34 – Evolution of Access Control Explained Through Python
00:17:14 – Sponsor: InfluxDB
00:18:03 – Dangerous Pickles
00:28:08 – Building Command Line Interfaces With argparse
00:34:27 – Video Course Spotlight
00:35:45 – PyPI.org is running a survey
00:49:01 – Visual Python Tkinter GUI Creator
00:50:33 – Python Data Visualization Cookbook
00:52:06 – django-functest: Helpers for Functional Tests in Django
00:57:55 – Thanks and goodbye

Show Links:

Python Insider: Python 3.11.0rc2 is now available
HTML and CSS for Python Developers – There’s no way around HTML and CSS when you want to build web apps. Even if you’re not aiming to become a web developer, knowing the basics of HTML and CSS will help you understand the Web better. In this tutorial, you’ll get an introduction to HTML and CSS for Python programmers.
Evolution of Access Control Explained Through Python – Sometimes, writing code can help you explore and understand concepts. This article shows a history of access controls in software, using Python scripts to reimplement the ideas.
Dangerous Pickles – A light introduction to the Python pickle protocol, the Pickle Machine, and the construction of malicious pickles. Learn why your code shouldn’t trust arbitrary serialized objects, and discover the dangers of pickle-bombs.
Building Command Line Interfaces With argparse – In this step-by-step Python video course, you’ll learn how to take your command line Python scripts to the next level by adding a convenient command line interface that you can write with argparse.

Discussion:

Projects:

Additional Links:

Level Up Your Python Skills With These Courses:

13 Project Ideas for Intermediate Python Developers

Grow Your Python Portfolio With 13 Intermediate Project Ideas

The Python pickle Module: How to Persist Objects in Python

Serializing Objects With the Python pickle Module

How to Build Command Line Interfaces in Python With argparse

Building Command Line Interfaces With argparse

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