On Thu, Mar 15, 2012 at 9:14 PM, David Chan <[email protected]> wrote:
> I broke this out into its own heading
> https://wiki.mozilla.org/Apps/Security#Centralized_permissions_manager

 i'm reading this section... it's very hard to understand the concept
being proposed.  even the purpose of the proposed "Centralised
permissions manager" is hard for me to grok, for which i apologise.
it's particularly confusing for me because i understand how SE/Linux
works.

 SE/Linux is fundamentally implemented at kernel level.  any
significant system call, be it a file/socket operation such as read,
write, open, ioctl or other such as fork, exec, mmap etc., all of
these aren't just "allowed", they're audited and controlled... by the
*kernel*.

 for proper security - for proper enforcement of permissions - it
*has* to be implemented at the kernel level.  it just does.  you
simply can't have security implemented in userspace: you've a snowball
in hell's chance of calling it "security".

 so from that perspective, proposing the existence of a "centralised
permissions manager" is a misnomer.  it's the kernel, and that's the
end of the matter.  (sorry, but it is.  even android implemented their
security system kernel-side).

 so i believe you _mayyy_ be referring to a system which helps users
to interact with granting or denying access to certain features and
information.

 parts of the description _may_ be referring to a system which helps
the developers to *create* the sets of permissions that will end up
being associated with the app.

 it is very hard to tell, and i get completely lost when reading the
bit about "uri signatures".

 i must be missing something, for which i apologise.

 l.
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