Keep in mind that this is a Clojure-specific issue. In Common Lisp, eval-suppressing macros should prevent this sort of thing (but I would not rely on that --

Keep in mind that this is a Clojure-specific issue. In Common Lisp, eval-suppressing macros should prevent this sort of thing (but I would not rely on that -- it is easy to accidentally create a reader macro that fails to check those variables). Personally, I would only use something like read if I were reading a configuration file i.e. something that only someone with privileged access can modify. I would not even consider using read for arbitrary, untrustworthy data; it is just silly in this day and age. It may make the code look prettier, but the fact that arbitrary data structures can be created and the potential to execute arbitrary code is enough to keep me away.