wineboot: Start items in StartUp folder on boot, includes security measures.

[richardvoigt at gmail.com]

On 2/12/07, James Hawkins <truiken at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 2/11/07, richardvoigt at gmail.com <richardvoigt at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 2/11/07, Misha Koshelev <mk144210 at bcm.tmc.edu> wrote:
> > > Hi everybody,
> > >
> > > Thanks for your suggestions. I just posted a new patch on wine-patches
> > > where I tried to incorporate these and now it does the following (in
> > > addition to my previous patch which just started items in the StartUp
> > > folder):
> > >
> > > - When wineboot finds a file that it wants to start in the StartUp
> > > folder, it asks the user whether he wants to run the program. His
> > > options are: Always, Yes, No (default), and Never.
> > > - If he selects Yes the program is run, if he select No it is not.
> > > - If he selects Always or Never, I create a registry key in:
> > > HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\StartupItems with the full pathname
> > > of the program and the value "always" or "never." When wineboot sees
> > > this program in the StartUp folder it checks this key, and if it is
> > > set it performs the appropriate action.
> > >
> > > What do you guys think? If you like the system, it would be pretty easy
> > > to incorporate this into the run key running as well (which are
> > > currently just run without any user confirmation)?
> >
> > This sounds almost perfect.  I think the counterpoint raised by James
> > Hawkins would be adequately addressed by adding a winecfg option as
> > follows:
> >
> > Startup items behavior:
> > (*) Silently allow             <-- This is "bug-for-bug compatibility"
> > ( ) Ask                            <-- Most computer-savvy folks would want this
> > ( ) Silently block
> > ( ) Block and notify me
> >
>
> This is unnecessarily complicated, and i really doubt anything like
> this would ever make it into the Wine tree.
>
> > Perhaps this should be independently set for each kind of startup item
> > (startmenu\programs\startup, registry run key, profile settings, etc),
> > but I think that's not really necessary.
> >
> > Also, I would suggest that the list of approved start items be stored
> > outside of winespace, so that malware can't bypass the protection by
> > setting the key.  Of course, really nasty stuff could still call into
> > Linux, but that would require some hybrid system that was aware of the
> > ELF dynamic loader in order to not fall afoul of address space
> > randomization.
> >
> > Ultimately I think wine is about more than just running
> > Windows-compatible programs without the Microsoft tax.  It's about
> > running those programs without ceding control of your computer to an
> > untrustworthy party.  We don't want the limitations that Windows
> > imposes... true bug-for-bug compatibility would mean only being able
> > to access files on a FAT or NTFS partition, but I don't hear anyone
> > advocating for that kind of crippling behavior.
> >
>
> What?  Wine has nothing to do with which file system your files reside
> on.
You advocated that wine aim for working exactly like Windows, no less
and no more, rather than deviating in user-configurable ways to
enhance the user's control over his own system.  Maybe while we're at
it, wine should have the bug which allows certain software to prevent
screen grabs.  No, I think defeating DRM to enable fair use is
perfectly reasonable, and there are some bugs which should be fixed.
Should wine try to patch remote exploits at the exact same rate as
windowsupdate.com?  That would be also be required for true
bug-for-bug compatibility.  After all, someone properly authorized
might be using that backdoor to reboot their webfarm remotely -- not!

There are things that are wrong in a theoretical sense (i.e. the
Pentium floating-point bug), or misclassification of Unicode
characters, which some programs might reasonably depend on.  And then
there are things that are wrong from a practical engineering
perspective, like software taking away the user's choice to not run
it, which the mere fact that a program depends on it makes it malware.

> Asking if you want to run every file set for startup in wineboot
> every single time is crippling behavior, not to mention annoying.  UAC
> anyone?  If you're so worried about this "malware", create a reduced
> privileges account just for Wine.

That's the point of a "remember my choice" or "Yes/No/Always/Never"
option on the prompt which appears when the winecfg option is ask...

Reduced privileges do little or nothing to prevent network abuse (open
spam relay and the like).

>
> > >
> > > Thanks
> > > Misha
> > >
> > > p.s. please please please anyone who is familiar with IShellFolder if
> > > you could look over those parts and just say yes it looks good that
> > > would make me feel better. I think it is correct but really an expert's
> > > opinion would be great.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> James Hawkins
>