elementary-dev-community team mailing list archive

[Akshay Shekher <voldyman666@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hey Cameron,
What you are describing sounds very similar to androids intent system.

The fist version of contractor did return data but the problem with that
was the application had to execute a command returned as a string so if a
program was running as root and a malicious program  used the same dbus
config as contractor then it could do lots of harm.

Shnatel and I had discussed the contractors implementation and decided
against returning data directly.

I am open to discussion on the topic though.
On Mar 19, 2014 7:06 AM, "Cameron Norman" <camerontnorman@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> I recently have taken an interest in some of the containment and security
> features being developed for Ubuntu touch, as well as Lennart Poettering's
> plans for containment on GNOME.
>
> One of the recurring aspects that I see is a "Content Hub" (Ubuntu) or
> "application Portals" (GNOME) system. Both of these have remarkable
> similarity (in concept) to elementary's Contractor. Although many of you
> most likely did not foresee Contractor's role in security when it was
> created, it undoubtedly does have one. By delegating out responsibilities
> (such as, say, printing), Contractor allows for the removal of privileges
> from an application. If all applications are using the print contract,
> there is no need for those applications to have the capability to use the
> printer.
>
> By extending Contractor's scope (or moving to another service) further
> containment, as well as better features, is possible. Specifically,
> *returning* data, instead of handing them off, will allow for increased
> consolidation of privileges.
>
> The open and save GTK file dialogs are great example. If apps use
> contracts to perform these functions, they do not need to be given the
> privilege of directly reading or writing to the user's documents, pictures,
> *emails*, etc.
>
> Another good example is retrieving a profile photo. Instead of having
> every social media app be able to directly access the webcam, they could
> ask *Contractor* for a photo, and contractor could give the webcam option.
>
> These are the changes/additions that I think could make this possible:
>  * returning data instead of just handing it off
>  * ability to call a contract by name (e.g. "Print" or "OpenFile")
>  * passing / returning more *types* of data: not just files, but also
> strings, booleans, or URLs
>
> Before I go into detail about how I have been thinking about exposing this
> functionality, I would like to hear all of your thoughts about the merit of
> these changes, and if any of you would like to develop these things with me
> (heads up: I suck at programming :).
>
> Lennart Poettering's presentation of portals at GUADEC 2013, starting at
> 35:00.<http://www.superlectures.com/guadec2013/sandboxed-applications-for-gnome>
>
> Ubuntu Mobile's "Content Hub".<http://developer.ubuntu.com/apps/platform/guides/content-hub-guide/>
>
> Thank you very much for reading,
> --
> Cameron Norman
>
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