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

[John Smith]

Part of my confusion what usage pattern is contracting malware on wine in
the first place

On 2/12/07, richardvoigt at gmail.com <richardvoigt at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 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
> >
>
>
>
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