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  • does it means that if you cat a binary files that may contains in plain text instruction like rm -rf . this could be interpreted ? Commented Mar 13, 2014 at 10:12
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    @Kiwy control characters don't exist on your keyboard, but you can make echo output them if you choose. See stackoverflow.com/questions/5947742/… for how to do it and termsys.demon.co.uk/vtansi.htm for some of what is possible Commented Mar 13, 2014 at 12:32
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    @DavidWilkins hey thanks that's nice, so much things to learn and no time for that :-( Commented Mar 13, 2014 at 12:33
  • is it possible that the binary file contains something malicious that gets interpreted as control sequences, for example printf '\e]2;abcd\e\\\e]21t'? where the \e]2;abcd\e\\\ (OSC 2 ; abcd ST) parts sets the window title to abcd and OSC 2 1 t queries the window title. Doesn't work on my machine but might be because of other reasons Commented Jul 11 at 16:00
  • start xterm and use the Set window title sequence, it does work! Remember, sending CSI or OSC sequences messes with the screen and doesn't send anything to the keyboard buffer. However, you could set a function key to a String plus nl, which when pressed will send that string as a command to the keyboard buffer, but you would need to press that function key. Commented Aug 6 at 10:56