Hi. Recently I have noticed discussion explaining how to bypass NetBeans Plugin Portal. The usual way is to create a NetBeans module extension to provide own update center definition and register it in NetBeans Plugin Portal. Once a user downloads such module, the provided update center gets activated and can distribute new updates or new modules.
Isn't this a security thread? Shouldn't we ban modules that register own update centers? When we worked on designing the new update center based on Maven central repository, I wanted to benefit from the organizational structure of Maven repository: - identity of people who publish there is known to some extent - it is not possible to alter once published content - there are sources next to each published module With such constraints we can more properly verify what 3rd party NetBeans extensions do before we approve them.. With modules that bypass our Plugin Portal by installing their own catalog, we loose any control. Owners of such catalogs can publish anything, anytime to anyone and change that whenever they want. It's just a matter of time till somebody exploits that. Shouldn't we require 3rd party modules available via the default NetBeans Update center to avoid such bypassing and always release new versions via Maven Central and NetBeans Plugin Portal? -jt
