5 ms·
Tim Berners-Lee is correct. If I leave my desk to go to the bathroom for a few minutes then I take my chances with any malicious actors with access to my hardw
by ronaldx 13y ago
Tim Berners-Lee is correct.
If I leave my desk to go to the bathroom for a few minutes then I take my chances with any malicious actors with access to my hardware, sure, we can call that "game over".
But that scenario doesn't make much sense in reality - if someone is that close and has such a malicious intent, why don't they simply hit me with a 5 dollar wrench[0]?
Whoever happens to be feeling malicious in my office ought to have to act out their malice deliberately - and not simply to be able to click a single button to retrieve all my personal passwords.
[0] http://xkcd.com/538/ http://xkcd.com/538/
- MichaelGG 13y agoIt's not a single click. They have to go into Settings, find the passwords section, open that up, find the password they want, and click show password for that entry. That's not "browsing passwords". That's clear, malicious, intent. It's like someone in your room looking at the bottom of your underwear drawer for secret items. Chrome is in no way popping passwords up in front of friendly unsuspecting visitors.
- chmars 13y agoA few simple clicks – or chrome://settings/passwords …
- MichaelGG 13y agoOr http://shortener.url/quickkit http://shortener.url/quickkit to run a quick program to do the same thing. Which is the entire point the program writers are trying to explain.
- pyre 13y agoEvery time a person gains physical access, the worst-case scenario is that it's someone skilled at such things. The reality is that the number of people with such skills is rather small when compared to the general population. What are the chances that someone with momentary access will be an ultra-skilled black hat? Do you not lock your house at all because the worst-case scenario is that the burglar is a master lock-picker (and you can't afford the ultra-expensive takes-30-minutes-and-powertools-to-break locks)? Using the worse-case scenario to guide all of your decisions makes more sense when the threat/attack is coming form the Internet, where the likelihood of the attacker being skilled significantly increases.
- interpol_p 13y ago> That's not "browsing passwords". That's clear, malicious, intent. I agree that there's some malicious intent. But the fact is that I would personally feel less guilty about doing this on my coworkers' computers than I would modifying the DOM after the password had been auto-filled. I think this applies to a lot of people who argue for adding a master password unlock to view stored passwords in plain text.
- pix64 13y agoAbout the wrench, subtly.