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SELinux Mailing ListRe: Desktop apps interoperability
From: Tom <tom_at_lemuria.org>
Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2005 16:09:36 +0200
ah! What you want is /home/tom/.etc/ ?
> > Generic folders are the bane of anything even resembling security. I posted my vision below - an explicit transfer. True, you can still trick the user, but it stops any automated exploits.
> > Downloads, especially, deserve to be treated differently, as they are As I suggested. :)
> > > It would become the equivalent of a new /home where you Then yes, I do believe many programs should be restricted. Anything with outside contact (web browser, mail reader, etc.) most definitely.
> Say I rip a bunch of songs with sound-juicer. Now I want to share them I'm still opposed to a generic "content" directory. However, what about a generic "share" directory with proper auto_trans rules? Anything I explicitly move there is readable by anything that knows what read() ist.
> I don't think so. The hoops are unnecessary, and the problem can be SELinux is incredible flexible. It can be configured totally insecure, if you want. :)
> > The average person also doesn't want their home machine turned into a I'm implying that jumping through hoops for security reasons is becoming generally accepted. Most dummy users know that they need a virus scanner. They have no idea what it is, except that it somehow protects them from viruses. In fact, most dummy users I've talked to don't know the difference between a firewall and a virus scanner. However, they are quite willing to put up with whatever inconvenience the virus scanner is putting on them, because the point that it's necessary has been hammered home.
Why should Linux be any different?
> That's a tradeoff I'm inclined to accept - especially since mplayer can Not if you don't want. That's the beauty of SELinux - I don't care how many kitchen sinks they've built into their software, on _my_ system it does what I allow it to do and nothing else.
> > In the long term, an explicit transfer (a nice GUI tool would make it Aunt Ellie downloads a movie. It goes into the Download folder (or really anywhere, it doesn't matter much). She drags the movie icon to the movie player and lets it drop. Movie plays. Behind the scenes, the file is relabeled or moved into another directory where mplayer can access it. Why is this more secure? Because it requires the intervention of a "trusted 3rd party" (the desktop environment) so you can not force bad data on my mplayer by compromising Firefox. You can not, for example, create movie-player-popup ads. -- http://web.lemuria.org/pubkey.html pub 1024D/2D7A04F5 2002-05-16 Tom Vogt <tom@lemuria.org> Key fingerprint = C731 64D1 4BCF 4C20 48A4 29B2 BF01 9FA1 2D7A 04F5 -- This message was distributed to subscribers of the selinux mailing list. If you no longer wish to subscribe, send mail to majordomo@tycho.nsa.gov with the words "unsubscribe selinux" without quotes as the message.Received on Mon 28 Mar 2005 - 09:09:44 EST |
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Date Posted: Jan 15, 2009 | Last Modified: Jan 15, 2009 | Last Reviewed: Jan 15, 2009 |