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I know that there's not much to do about it, but these embedded web view OAuth dialogs always make me cringe. There's no URL bar, there's no SSL indicator, no w
by pilif 15y ago
I know that there's not much to do about it, but these embedded web view OAuth dialogs always make me cringe. There's no URL bar, there's no SSL indicator, no way to check the certificate of the page it was hosted from.
It would be ever so easy to present a faked Google login page.
Of course, this is just a matter of trust and the issue would be the exact same if I were to just type my Google password into a native username/password form.
Still. What good is this OAuth stuff when it practically provides no security advantage over a traditional native UI? It's as easy for a malicious app to present me with a faked Google OAuth page as it is to just log whatever I type into the native UI which would have the advantage of being easier to use and not requiring any loading time.
OAuth is wonderful between webapps, but I really don't see justification for it with locally installed client apps.
If at all possible, please, please if you are forced to do the OAuth dance, try to make it go via the system default browser! THAT would allow me to check certificates and would be a huge security advantage over any traditional method.
Provided I can trust my browser, but frankly, I trust that much mor than $someapp_i_just_downloaded.
- Splognosticus 15y agoWell $someapp_i_just_downloaded pretty much has free reign to do whatever it wants anyway since it's running locally, and probably even had admin rights at some point during the installation process. If it were malicious then it's already too late to worry about it by the time it's showing you the OAuth dialog.
- sandipc 15y agoTrue, but at this point I would worry more about unapproved access to my Google account (for example) than to my computer... given the amount of personal information Google has about me at this point. Google search history, Gmail, Calendar, Maps history, Latitude location history from running on my Android phone, Chrome browsing history and bookmarks, ...
- patrickaljord 15y agoIf it has access to your computer then it could have access to your Google account. It could for example install a firefox or chrome extension on your behalf like Skype does and that extension would scrape your gmail and google accounts and steal all your data.