gh-65697: Improved error msg for configparser key validation

Doc/whatsnew/3.14.rst

@@ -1259,6 +1259,14 @@ concurrent.futures
   buffer.
   (Contributed by Enzo Bonnal and Josh Rosenberg in :gh:`74028`.)
 
+configparser
+------------
+
+* Security fix: will no longer write config files it cannot read. Attempting
+  to :meth:`configparser.ConfigParser.write` keys containing delimiters or
+  beginning with the section header pattern will raise a
+  :class:`configparser.InvalidWriteError`.
+  (Contributed by Jacob Lincoln in :gh:`129270`)
 
 contextvars
 -----------

Lib/configparser.py

@@ -1218,11 +1218,14 @@ def _convert_to_boolean(self, value):
 
     def _validate_key_contents(self, key):
         """Raises an InvalidWriteError for any keys containing
-        delimiters or that match the section header pattern"""
+        delimiters or that begins with the section header pattern"""
         if re.match(self.SECTCRE, key):
-            raise InvalidWriteError("Cannot write keys matching section pattern")
-        if any(delim in key for delim in self._delimiters):
-            raise InvalidWriteError("Cannot write key that contains delimiters")
+            raise InvalidWriteError(
+                f"Cannot write key {key}; begins with section pattern")
+        for delim in self._delimiters:
+            if delim in key:
+                raise InvalidWriteError(
+                    f"Cannot write key {key}; contains delimiter {delim}")
 
     def _validate_value_types(self, *, section="", option="", value=""):
         """Raises a TypeError for illegal non-string values.

Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2025-06-15-03-03-22.gh-issue-65697.COdwZd.rst

@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+:class:`configparser`'s error message when attempting to write an invalid key is now more helpful.