Re: Firefox PDF download - strange behaviour.

From	"Jeremy Nicoll" <jn.ml.dbn.25@letterboxes.org>
Newsgroups	linux.debian.user
Subject	Re: Firefox PDF download - strange behaviour.
Date	2022-01-18 17:50 +0100
Message-ID	<DGZQe-13I-15@gated-at.bofh.it> (permalink)
References	(1 earlier) <DGiLg-63n-9@gated-at.bofh.it> <DGiLg-63n-5@gated-at.bofh.it> <DGsKC-4kR-1@gated-at.bofh.it> <DGHgC-5zu-5@gated-at.bofh.it> <DGZGy-ZZ-9@gated-at.bofh.it>
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On Tue, 18 Jan 2022, at 16:35, The Wanderer wrote:

> So this could potentially be dangerous if the user chooses a directory
> location that's high enough in the directory tree to have important
> files already underneath it, but not if the user chooses e.g. a
> dedicated Downloads directory.

I'd expect malware using this mechanism to put forward a "plausible"
reason why a naive user should select an unsafe directory, rather than
a downloads one.

>> I think I also read that once the code has a handle to a directory it
>> can scan sub-directories as well.
>
> Yes, that appears to be correct.

And that opens up the scourge of malware that correctly identifies what
software one has installed, and/or aspects of its configuration, just based
on what files/folders exist.

-- 
Jeremy Nicoll - my opinions are my own.

Thread

Re: Firefox PDF download - strange behaviour. Kamil Jońca <kjonca@o2.pl> - 2022-01-16 19:50 +0100
  Re: Firefox PDF download - strange behaviour. songbird <songbird@anthive.com> - 2022-01-17 06:30 +0100
    Re: Firefox PDF download - strange behaviour. "Jeremy Nicoll" <jn.ml.dbn.25@letterboxes.org> - 2022-01-17 22:00 +0100
      Re: Firefox PDF download - strange behaviour. songbird <songbird@anthive.com> - 2022-01-18 06:00 +0100
        Re: Firefox PDF download - strange behaviour. "Jeremy Nicoll" <jn.ml.dbn.25@letterboxes.org> - 2022-01-18 15:50 +0100
          Re: Firefox PDF download - strange behaviour. David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2022-01-18 17:50 +0100
          Re: Firefox PDF download - strange behaviour. songbird <songbird@anthive.com> - 2022-01-18 17:50 +0100
            Re: Firefox PDF download - strange behaviour. Vincent Lefevre <vincent@vinc17.net> - 2022-01-18 19:30 +0100
          Re: Firefox PDF download - strange behaviour. Curt <curty@free.fr> - 2022-01-19 13:50 +0100
      Re: Firefox PDF download - strange behaviour. The Wanderer <wanderer@fastmail.fm> - 2022-01-18 17:40 +0100
        Re: Firefox PDF download - strange behaviour. "Jeremy Nicoll" <jn.ml.dbn.25@letterboxes.org> - 2022-01-18 17:50 +0100
        Re: Firefox PDF download - strange behaviour. Andrei POPESCU <andreimpopescu@gmail.com> - 2022-01-21 10:50 +0100

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