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This seems simple to fix - deactivate all links that didn’t become part of a published comment. I’m sure this is hard, especially at that scale - then again it
by thih9 3y ago
This seems simple to fix - deactivate all links that didn’t become part of a published comment.
I’m sure this is hard, especially at that scale - then again it seems doable eventually.
- mmoskal 3y agoI guess easier to make the url be githubusercontent.com/whatever without mentioning repo name (or use uuid of repo).
- thih9 3y agoSure, but existing links would still be an issue.
- pquki4 3y agoWhat if a comment is updated to remove the link? Or maybe a new comment has no link, an edited version has a link, then the latest version removes link etc.
- sebazzz 3y agoThat's why you need to do garbage collection from time to time. That adds a lot of complexity to the system.
- gruez 3y agoWhat if you make the hyperlink a dot or a zero width character? What if you place it adjacent to a legitimate link?
- hn_acker 3y agoCan't you just comb through the HTML for the href? Then the text of the hyperlink doesn't matter.
- gruez 3y agoThe point is that by doing so, you can smuggle the attachment past anyone who's reading the comment section, yet still appears to the system as a legitimate attachment.
- hn_acker 3y agoThe thread OP's comment was: > This seems simple to fix - deactivate all links that didn’t become part of a published comment. Currently, a major convenience for the malware spreader is being able to put malware on the server and get a usable URL back without submitting the comment. Deactivating links for unsubmitted comments that were canceled is orthogonal to identifying malware, and wouldn't make the comment readers more vulnerable than they already are.
- arp242 3y agoWhen do you do this? After an hour? A day? A week? There's been cases it's taken me a few days to write a comment or PR message because I was still working on things. If you set it to short (hours) it'll be pretty annoying and confusing for people. If you set it too long (more than a day), scammers will just keep generating new links. It's not that simple to fix, certainly not with these kind of timeouts. The only solution is to not have a "trusted" URL like that.
- SushiHippie 3y agoTheoretically they could make links that are not posted in a comment private, and once you post the comment they would be made public.
- jabiko 3y agoOr add a signed timestamp to the URL after which it isn't valid anymore. So the URL can't be used without opening the actual comment on GitHub.