3 ms·

Sorry - this is total security theater. I download almost everything from the net - how else would I install? CD? Floppy? Telling me that it's downloaded from

by radley 14y ago

Sorry - this is total security theater. I download almost everything from the net - how else would I install? CD? Floppy? Telling me that it's downloaded from the internet doesn't do anything to identify that it's dangerous and so I ignore the warning. Under what circumstance would I go "whoa, maybe it's dangerous this time"??? Mac's don't have auto-install .exe files. Yet we get warning for everything from JPEGs to TXT to DMG. Ridiculous.

brigade 14y ago
If you can execute code, said code could be an auto-installer. If there's a vulnerability in the application used to open a JPEG or whatever, you can execute code. It's less asking "is this dangerous?" and more "did you download and open this?"
- chc 14y ago
  If something else downloaded and opened the file, it's already owned your account, hasn't it? The horses are out of the barn at that point, right?
  - brigade 14y ago
    There are 3 steps needed to exploit this attack vector (assuming no wetware exploits): 1. Download the file. Any website can do this by design. 2. Get LaunchServices to open the file. This requires at least one vulnerability. 3. Bypass quarantine. This requires at least one additional vulnerability.
comex 14y ago
In principle, you shouldn't be getting warnings for any of those formats. You should only be getting one when you launch an executable - it's a warning that the file you downloaded is an executable and not some random other file you can (barring vulnerabilities) open without trust. I don't know why it cares about the executable bit(?) in this case, though.
snowwrestler 14y ago
The point is that you might not know you had downloaded the file, or that it was executing. Imagine you're surfing the Web one day and all of a sudden this warning pops onto your screen. It would be nice to know that something downloaded from the Internet is trying to execute itself.

by radley 14y ago

brigade 14y ago

If you can execute code, said code could be an auto-installer. If there's a vulnerability in the application used to open a JPEG or whatever, you can execute code. It's less asking "is this dangerous?" and more "did you download and open this?"

chc 14y ago
If something else downloaded and opened the file, it's already owned your account, hasn't it? The horses are out of the barn at that point, right?
- brigade 14y ago
  There are 3 steps needed to exploit this attack vector (assuming no wetware exploits): 1. Download the file. Any website can do this by design. 2. Get LaunchServices to open the file. This requires at least one vulnerability. 3. Bypass quarantine. This requires at least one additional vulnerability.

comex 14y ago

In principle, you shouldn't be getting warnings for any of those formats. You should only be getting one when you launch an executable - it's a warning that the file you downloaded is an executable and not some random other file you can (barring vulnerabilities) open without trust. I don't know why it cares about the executable bit(?) in this case, though.

snowwrestler 14y ago

The point is that you might not know you had downloaded the file, or that it was executing. Imagine you're surfing the Web one day and all of a sudden this warning pops onto your screen. It would be nice to know that something downloaded from the Internet is trying to execute itself.