The cursor name can be a non-valid PostgreSQL identifier

NEWS

@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ What's new in psycopg 2.4
     into Python tuples/namedtuples.
   - More efficient iteration on named cursors, fetching 'itersize' records at
     time from the backend.
+  - The named cursors name can be an invalid identifier.
   - 'cursor.description' is provided in named tuples if available.
   - Connections and cursors are weakly referenceable.
   - Added 'b' and 't' mode to large objects: write can deal with both bytes

doc/src/connection.rst

@@ -25,11 +25,24 @@ The ``connection`` class
           
         Return a new `cursor` object using the connection.
 
-        If `name` is specified, the returned cursor will be a *server
-        side* (or *named*) cursor. Otherwise the cursor will be *client side*.
-        See :ref:`server-side-cursors` for further details.
+        If *name* is specified, the returned cursor will be a :ref:`server
+        side cursor <server-side-cursors>` (also known as *named cursor*).
+        Otherwise it will be a regular *client side* cursor.
 
-        The `cursor_factory` argument can be used to create non-standard
+        The name can be a string not valid as a PostgreSQL identifier: for
+        example it may start with a digit and contain non-alphanumeric
+        characters and quotes.
+
+        .. versionchanged:: 2.4
+            previously only valid PostgreSQL identifiers were accepted as
+            cursor name.
+
+        .. warning::
+            It is unsafe to expose the *name* to an untrusted source, for
+            instance you shouldn't allow *name* to be read from a HTML form.
+            Consider it as part of the query, not as a query parameter.
+
+        The *cursor_factory* argument can be used to create non-standard
         cursors. The class returned should be a subclass of
         `psycopg2.extensions.cursor`. See :ref:`subclassing-cursor` for
         details.

psycopg/cursor_type.c

@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ psyco_curs_close(cursorObject *self, PyObject *args)
         char buffer[128];
 
         EXC_IF_NO_MARK(self);
-        PyOS_snprintf(buffer, 127, "CLOSE %s", self->name);
+        PyOS_snprintf(buffer, 127, "CLOSE \"%s\"", self->name);
         if (pq_execute(self, buffer, 0) == -1) return NULL;
     }
 
@@ -391,7 +391,7 @@ _psyco_curs_execute(cursorObject *self,
 
         if (self->name != NULL) {
             self->query = Bytes_FromFormat(
-                "DECLARE %s CURSOR WITHOUT HOLD FOR %s",
+                "DECLARE \"%s\" CURSOR WITHOUT HOLD FOR %s",
                 self->name, Bytes_AS_STRING(fquery));
             Py_DECREF(fquery);
         }
@@ -402,7 +402,7 @@ _psyco_curs_execute(cursorObject *self,
     else {
         if (self->name != NULL) {
             self->query = Bytes_FromFormat(
-                "DECLARE %s CURSOR WITHOUT HOLD FOR %s",
+                "DECLARE \"%s\" CURSOR WITHOUT HOLD FOR %s",
                 self->name, Bytes_AS_STRING(operation));
         }
         else {
@@ -748,7 +748,7 @@ psyco_curs_fetchone(cursorObject *self, PyObject *args)
 
         EXC_IF_NO_MARK(self);
         EXC_IF_TPC_PREPARED(self->conn, fetchone);
-        PyOS_snprintf(buffer, 127, "FETCH FORWARD 1 FROM %s", self->name);
+        PyOS_snprintf(buffer, 127, "FETCH FORWARD 1 FROM \"%s\"", self->name);
         if (pq_execute(self, buffer, 0) == -1) return NULL;
         if (_psyco_curs_prefetch(self) < 0) return NULL;
     }
@@ -802,7 +802,7 @@ psyco_curs_next_named(cursorObject *self)
     if (self->row >= self->rowcount) {
         char buffer[128];
 
-        PyOS_snprintf(buffer, 127, "FETCH FORWARD %ld FROM %s",
+        PyOS_snprintf(buffer, 127, "FETCH FORWARD %ld FROM \"%s\"",
             self->itersize, self->name);
         if (pq_execute(self, buffer, 0) == -1) return NULL;
         if (_psyco_curs_prefetch(self) < 0) return NULL;
@@ -862,7 +862,7 @@ psyco_curs_fetchmany(cursorObject *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwords)
 
         EXC_IF_NO_MARK(self);
         EXC_IF_TPC_PREPARED(self->conn, fetchone);
-        PyOS_snprintf(buffer, 127, "FETCH FORWARD %d FROM %s",
+        PyOS_snprintf(buffer, 127, "FETCH FORWARD %d FROM \"%s\"",
             (int)size, self->name);
         if (pq_execute(self, buffer, 0) == -1) return NULL;
         if (_psyco_curs_prefetch(self) < 0) return NULL;
@@ -933,7 +933,7 @@ psyco_curs_fetchall(cursorObject *self, PyObject *args)
 
         EXC_IF_NO_MARK(self);
         EXC_IF_TPC_PREPARED(self->conn, fetchall);
-        PyOS_snprintf(buffer, 127, "FETCH FORWARD ALL FROM %s", self->name);
+        PyOS_snprintf(buffer, 127, "FETCH FORWARD ALL FROM \"%s\"", self->name);
         if (pq_execute(self, buffer, 0) == -1) return NULL;
         if (_psyco_curs_prefetch(self) < 0) return NULL;
     }
@@ -1144,11 +1144,11 @@ psyco_curs_scroll(cursorObject *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwargs)
         EXC_IF_TPC_PREPARED(self->conn, scroll);
 
         if (strcmp(mode, "absolute") == 0) {
-            PyOS_snprintf(buffer, 127, "MOVE ABSOLUTE %d FROM %s",
+            PyOS_snprintf(buffer, 127, "MOVE ABSOLUTE %d FROM \"%s\"",
                 value, self->name);
         }
         else {
-            PyOS_snprintf(buffer, 127, "MOVE %d FROM %s", value, self->name);
+            PyOS_snprintf(buffer, 127, "MOVE %d FROM \"%s\"", value, self->name);
         }
         if (pq_execute(self, buffer, 0) == -1) return NULL;
         if (_psyco_curs_prefetch(self) < 0) return NULL;
@@ -1666,11 +1666,9 @@ cursor_setup(cursorObject *self, connectionObject *conn, const char *name)
     Dprintf("cursor_setup: parameters: name = %s, conn = %p", name, conn);
 
     if (name) {
-        if (!(self->name = PyMem_Malloc(strlen(name)+1))) {
-            PyErr_NoMemory();
+        if (!(self->name = psycopg_escape_identifier_easy(name, 0))) {
             return 1;
         }
-        strncpy(self->name, name, strlen(name)+1);
     }
 
     /* FIXME: why does this raise an excpetion on the _next_ line of code?

psycopg/psycopg.h

@@ -125,7 +125,7 @@ HIDDEN void psyco_set_error(PyObject *exc, cursorObject *curs, const char *msg,
 
 HIDDEN char *psycopg_escape_string(PyObject *conn,
               const char *from, Py_ssize_t len, char *to, Py_ssize_t *tolen);
-
+HIDDEN char *psycopg_escape_identifier_easy(const char *from, Py_ssize_t len);
 HIDDEN char *psycopg_strdup(const char *from, Py_ssize_t len);
 HIDDEN PyObject * psycopg_ensure_bytes(PyObject *obj);
 HIDDEN PyObject * psycopg_ensure_text(PyObject *obj);

psycopg/utils.c

@@ -71,6 +71,43 @@ psycopg_escape_string(PyObject *obj, const char *from, Py_ssize_t len,
     return to;
 }
 
+/* Escape a string to build a valid PostgreSQL identifier
+ *
+ * Allocate a new buffer on the Python heap containing the new string.
+ * 'len' is optional: if 0 the length is calculated.
+ *
+ * The returned string doesn't include quotes.
+ *
+ * WARNING: this function is not so safe to allow untrusted input: it does no
+ * check for multibyte chars. Such a function should be built on
+ * PQescapeIndentifier, which is only available from PostgreSQL 9.0.
+ */
+char *
+psycopg_escape_identifier_easy(const char *from, Py_ssize_t len)
+{
+    char *rv;
+    const char *src;
+    char *dst;
+
+    if (!len) { len = strlen(from); }
+    if (!(rv = PyMem_New(char, 1 + 2 * len))) {
+        PyErr_NoMemory();
+        return NULL;
+    }
+
+    /* The only thing to do is double quotes */
+    for (src = from, dst = rv; *src; ++src, ++dst) {
+        *dst = *src;
+        if ('"' == *src) {
+            *++dst = '"';
+        }
+    }
+
+    *dst = '\0';
+
+    return rv;
+}
+
 /* Duplicate a string.
  *
  * Allocate a new buffer on the Python heap containing the new string.

tests/test_cursor.py

@@ -141,6 +141,16 @@ class CursorTests(unittest.TestCase):
         del curs
         self.assert_(w() is None)
 
+    def test_invalid_name(self):
+        curs = self.conn.cursor()
+        curs.execute("create temp table invname (data int);")
+        curs.execute("insert into invname values (10), (20), (30)")
+        curs.close()
+
+        curs = self.conn.cursor(r'1-2-3 \ "test"')
+        curs.execute("select data from invname order by data")
+        self.assertEqual(curs.fetchall(), [(10,), (20,), (30,)])
+
     @skip_before_postgres(8, 2)
     def test_iter_named_cursor_efficient(self):
         curs = self.conn.cursor('tmp')