[Gnash-dev] Re: Building in security

[Eric Hughes]

At 03:19 AM 5/2/2007, Udo Giacomozzi wrote:
> Allow me this question: What *real* security risk is there when a
> Flash movie loads data from wherever it likes?
[...]
> So, I'm curious about any real security risk scenario involved with
> loading/exchanging data from anywhere.

These days, there aren't very many practical attacks that, in isolation, 
with a single step, lead to a breach.  Instead, combinations of methods, 
some apparently trivial, create a chain of action that lead in total to a 
security.  So the kind of scenario you're looking for will involve 
arbitrary other things that might happen, in combination with the 
designated security-issue-at-question, and may seem like cheating, because 
it involves pulling rabbits out of hats.

Now, look!, nothing up my sleeve.  Arbitrary data exchange is a foundation 
for DDOS (distributed denial of service), for example, which provides a 
generic class of malicious use of clients.  What are the other details?  I 
can't say right now.  What I can say is that allowing arbitrary operations 
by a client is the moral equivalent of providing a programmable network 
server.  Would you grant login/password to every web site you visit?

To approach to security in this environment is to focus on preserving some 
set of invariants of authorized use.  What those invariants are I cannot 
say yet.

Eric