[gwerbin]

Would this be possible with a patch-based version control system like Darcs or Pijul? Does patch-based version control have other analogous security risks, or is it "better" in this case?

[fanf2]

If the patch language includes a recursive copy than it's possible to reproduce this problem in that setting.

[geezerjay]

If I understood correctly, this problem isn't caused by recursive copies but simply by expanding references. The example shows that the reference expansion leads to an exponential increase in resources required by the service.