Open Radar

 
Summary:
If a plist is invalid (missing a closing tag for example) attempting to read the plist with `defaults read /path/to/plist` deletes the entire file.

Steps to Reproduce:
1) Create a plist `defaults write /Users/Shared/test test -string test
2) Convert the plist to xml `plutil -convert xml1 /Users/Shared/test.plist`
3) Edit the plist to remove a closing tag
4) Attempt to read the plist `defaults read /Users/Shared/test`

Expected Results:
Error that the file could not be read

Actual Results:
File is deleted

Version:
10.13.3

Notes:
eholtam:Desktop eholtam$ ls -l test.plist 
-rw-------@ 1 eholtam  domain\Domain Users  219 Feb 20 20:37 test.plist

eholtam:Desktop eholtam$ cat test.plist 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>test</key>
    <string>test
</dict>
</plist>

eholtam:Desktop eholtam$ defaults read /Users/eholtam/Desktop/test
2018-02-20 20:37:59.188 defaults[7734:40969] 
Domain /Users/eholtam/Desktop/test does not exist

eholtam:Desktop eholtam$ ls -l test.plist 
ls: test.plist: No such file or directory