Oh, the issue is about traceability.  EV certificates are designed to
ensure there's an entity to sue if something goes wrong.  I don't
think the gallery has any such process.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_Validation_Certificate#Issuing_criteria

Adam


On Sun, Jan 3, 2010 at 5:28 PM, Ernest Delgado <[email protected]> wrote:
> Isn't there anything on the "Google Chrome Gallery Developer
> Agreement" about that already?
>
> On Sun, Jan 3, 2010 at 2:32 PM, Adam Barth <[email protected]> wrote:
>> That's an interesting idea.  There might be some way to leverage the
>> extended validation certificate system to do that easily.
>>
>> Adam
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Jan 1, 2010 at 2:22 PM, Erek Speed <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> One policy is to have a higher level of verification for extension
>>> authors.  Some method where they're name and address are verified
>>> which at least insures that they'll be identified if they do anything
>>> evil.
>>>
>>> On Jan 2, 5:36 am, Laurence <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>> Completely agree on 3, for too long everyone is expected to be an IT
>>>> expert, and it's their fault if their not.
>>>>
>>>> As I see it, there is a problem that an innocent looking extension can
>>>> turn into a malicious extension via autoupdate, or eval/innerHTML,
>>>> potentially compromising many users. An obvious thing for the
>>>> malicious extension to do is to log all form data, and post it to a
>>>> hostile site using XHR. I don't have any good ideas for preventing
>>>> this directly...
>>>>
>>>> One idea is to use fine grained security to prevent the malicious
>>>> behaviour. My first though was to require an extra capability to allow
>>>> passwords to go from content script to XHR, however as pointed out
>>>> above this is not as simple as it seems. My second though: an
>>>> additional capability is required to pass any data from a content
>>>> script to XHR. I'm not sure how many extensions would require this
>>>> capability, password managers would, but hopefully it would be few,
>>>> and come with a suitably strongly worded warning.
>>>>
>>>> I'm sure there are many issues to work through, but lets discuss!
>>>>
>>>> On Jan 1, 7:44 pm, Adam Barth <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> > Some high-level points:
>>>>
>>>> > 1) In thinking about security, I find it helpful to separate policy
>>>> > from mechanism.  A bunch of messages in this thread are about various
>>>> > mechanisms (taint tracking, DOM reference monitors, etc), but we don't
>>>> > have a clear idea what policy we'd like these mechanisms to enforce.
>>>>
>>>> > 2) Several messages are interested in protecting passwords (e.g.,
>>>> > noticing if an extension mis-uses passwords in various ways).  Before
>>>> > we think about what sorts of policies we ought to apply to passwords,
>>>> > we should think about how we're going to recognize what's a password
>>>> > and what's not a password.  Just using <input type="password"> isn't
>>>> > sufficient if the extension can draw things on the web page (which is
>>>> > a more or less a requirement for the extension system) because the
>>>> > extension can draw a box that looks exactly like a password field.
>>>>
>>>> > 3) Some folks are tempted to punt security questions to the user
>>>> > (e.g., extension XYZ wants to communicate with host ABC, allow/deny?).
>>>> >  Although it might make us feel better to be able to blame the user
>>>> > when something goes wrong, many users won't have enough context to
>>>> > make reasonable security decisions when faced with these kinds of
>>>> > questions (e.g., should the Happy Fun Ball extension be allowed to
>>>> > communicate with happyfunball.com?).
>>>>
>>>> > Adam
>>>>
>>>> > On Fri, Jan 1, 2010 at 6:48 AM, Laurence <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>> > > Agreed, it'll be hard to detect if an extension is maliciously using
>>>> > > passwords. However if passing of passwords can be detected between the
>>>> > > content script and the background page/XHR for example, it can have a
>>>> > > security capability associated with it, which hopefully people would
>>>> > > only grant to a password saver. Well that's my theory...
>>>>
>>>> > > Laurence
>>>>
>>>> > > On Jan 1, 2:10 pm, PhistucK <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>> > >> But, think of the counter case, how can you detect that an extension 
>>>> > >> is
>>>> > >> maliciously using your passwords as malicious, and an extension that 
>>>> > >> is
>>>> > >> rightfully using your passwords (a password saver) as not malicious?
>>>>
>>>> > >> Both of them can act the same way, so, what, will you block both of 
>>>> > >> them due
>>>> > >> to the security risks?
>>>>
>>>> > >> ☆PhistucK
>>>>
>>>> > >> On Fri, Jan 1, 2010 at 16:04, Laurence <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>> > >> > Could there be some more fine grained security around forms,
>>>> > >> > especially password fields? (Including document.onkeypress when a
>>>> > >> > password field has focus, and possibly other vectors - am I being 
>>>> > >> > too
>>>> > >> > simplistic here - does the content script merge and become
>>>> > >> > indistinguishable from the web page itself?). It should be very rare
>>>> > >> > for extensions to need these (only password managers, which you
>>>> > >> > implicitly trust with everything anyway), and if people give an
>>>> > >> > extension access to their passwords, then they do it with their eyes
>>>> > >> > open.
>>>>
>>>> > >> > Is fine grained security around eval/innerHTML from XHR possible? I
>>>> > >> > assume that would be difficult too, would need to 'taint' every
>>>> > >> > variable derived from an XHR.
>>>>
>>>> > >> > What do you think? Or other ideas?
>>>>
>>>> > >> > Laurence
>>>>
>>>> > >> > On Dec 31 2009, 10:14 pm, Mohamed Mansour <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>> > >> > > Maybe having some kind of statistical usage of xhr calls that each
>>>> > >> > extension
>>>> > >> > > will keep track permanently. That way, we could do some sort of 
>>>> > >> > > smart
>>>> > >> > > algorithm that will point out some uncommon, untrustworthy 
>>>> > >> > > requests. I am
>>>> > >> > > just dreaming, but I think its possible to eliminate some threat.
>>>>
>>>> > >> > > Cause currently, if some developer's extension's account got 
>>>> > >> > > hijacked or
>>>> > >> > > stolen, the user could modify his extension and add some privacy
>>>> > >> > concerning
>>>> > >> > > risks. To (try to) stop that, we could do what we did before, and 
>>>> > >> > > let the
>>>> > >> > > developer supply the certification file (pem) everytime he 
>>>> > >> > > updates his
>>>> > >> > > extension, that will eliminate that kind of threat, when the 
>>>> > >> > > account has
>>>> > >> > > been compromised.
>>>>
>>>> > >> > > PS: I am not a security person, just some ideas that came out of 
>>>> > >> > > my head.
>>>> > >> > So
>>>> > >> > > I might be just dreaming. Nevertheless, its an interesting topic.
>>>>
>>>> > >> > > -Mohamed Mansour
>>>>
>>>> > >> > > On Thu, Dec 31, 2009 at 3:44 PM, Adam Barth <[email protected]> 
>>>> > >> > > wrote:
>>>> > >> > > > Yes, that's a scary scenario and a real threat.  If you have 
>>>> > >> > > > ideas for
>>>> > >> > > > what we could do to protect against that threat, I'd be 
>>>> > >> > > > interested in
>>>> > >> > > > discussing them.
>>>>
>>>> > >> > > > Keep in mind that a nefarious extension doesn't need the 
>>>> > >> > > > auto-update
>>>> > >> > > > system at all to change its behavior over time.  For example, 
>>>> > >> > > > the
>>>> > >> > > > extension can load code from it's own web site into the 
>>>> > >> > > > extension
>>>> > >> > > > process (e.g., via eval or innerHTML).
>>>>
>>>> > >> > > > Adam
>>>>
>>>> > >> > > > On Sun, Dec 27, 2009 at 4:16 AM, Laurence 
>>>> > >> > > > <[email protected]>
>>>> > >> > wrote:
>>>> > >> > > > > Hi,
>>>>
>>>> > >> > > > > I've been playing about with the extension framework - really 
>>>> > >> > > > > is a
>>>> > >> > joy
>>>> > >> > > > > to use.
>>>>
>>>> > >> > > > > However I have a slight concern about the threat model. It's 
>>>> > >> > > > > fairly
>>>> > >> > > > > trivial to write an extension to log all form data (from both 
>>>> > >> > > > > http
>>>> > >> > and
>>>> > >> > > > > https sites) and send it off to a foreign host, given content 
>>>> > >> > > > > script
>>>> > >> > > > > and Cross-Origin XHR permissions. The threat model assumes 
>>>> > >> > > > > that such
>>>> > >> > > > > an extension will get bad reviews, so not affect many users, 
>>>> > >> > > > > but does
>>>> > >> > > > > it factor in the autoupdate mechanism?
>>>>
>>>> > >> > > > > As a nefarious developer, I could create a perfectly innocent 
>>>> > >> > > > > and
>>>> > >> > > > > useful extension (with content script and Cross-Origin XHR
>>>> > >> > > > > permissions), and wait until a large number of users have 
>>>> > >> > > > > installed
>>>> > >> > > > > it. Then I release a new version, automatically pushed out to
>>>> > >> > existing
>>>> > >> > > > > users, that introduces form logging. Whilst it may only take 
>>>> > >> > > > > a day or
>>>> > >> > > > > so for someone to notice and the extension killed, large 
>>>> > >> > > > > numbers of
>>>> > >> > > > > users will have their details (usernames, passwords, credit 
>>>> > >> > > > > card
>>>> > >> > > > > numbers) stolen.
>>>>
>>>> > >> > > > > Any thoughts?
>>>>
>>>> > >> > > > > Laurence
>>>>
>>>> > >> > > > > --
>>>>
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>>>> > >> > > >  [email protected]><chromium-extensions%2Bunsu
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>>>>
>>>> > >> > > > --
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>>>>
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>>>
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