Bugtraq mailing list archives

Re:Re: [ELEYTT] 3SIERPIEN2007


From: "Michal Bucko" <michal.bucko () eleytt com>
Date: Sat, 04 Aug 2007 23:10:44 +0200

"[..]it's counterproductive to bash Firefox.[..]"

I have no intension of bashing Firefox. However, in
my opinion, such link obfuscation touches effectively
every man in the street, and a web browser should tackle 
a problem in a different way. (differnt treatment of 
misguiding URL  elements, problem of direct linking, etc.)



"[..]javascript: might be somewhat counterintuitive 
and can be used for obfuscation, but are otherwise 
displayed properly in the status bar.[..]"

This is exactly what I meant - I am definetely not
saying that URL is being wrongly displayed. What I 
am saying is that it might cause a problem for 
normal users (and it will).


"[..]We might argue that there should be no confusing
  
URL schemes, or that direct linking to them should be 
  
restricted, but that's again a wholly separate 
  
academic debate[..]"

I agree. 


"[..]It's not a Firefox problem[..]"

The origin of the issue, as you noticed, probably lies
somewhat lower, in the notion of security. (e.g. who 
should be protected and to what extent?) As I mentioned 
before, normal users should be given a chance to cope
(with more efficacy) with such misguiding issues. 



Finally, according to my notion of security, we should 
build such solutions so that normal users do not need 
to learn much about RFC standards to make use of a web
browser. Such scripts are tangible proofs of a larger 
problem concerning the notion of security. As you said, 
this is a subject for a longer discussion.




mb


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