[Geany-Users] signature files for plugins, etc?

Lex Trotman elextr at xxxxx
Sat Oct 12 23:49:46 UTC 2019


> > It doesn't really matter which file, plugin, etc.  Just that they're not
> > included in the dev's final build of Geany, which is then signed by the
> > devs.
> >
>

You said it yourself, "they are not included in a build of Geany"
that answers the whole question.

> > None of the other plugins, tag files, etc., for Geany have any assurance
> > they haven't been tampered with since uploaded to Geany servers.
> >
>
> That's correct, nothing outside of official releases/repositories are
> reviewed or signed by members of Geany team.

But if anyone reports egregious harm then as the wiki is backed by a
VCS so the damaging post can be reverted.

>
> > That's not to say the individual developers of plugins & 3rd party
> > "stuff" for Geany intentionally uploaded malicious content.
> >
> > Apparently, almost any site, business or network of any gov't in the
> > world CAN be hacked & sometimes files are replaced with tampered copies
> > - because it happens all the time.
> >
>
> Nevermind hacking, the wiki is open to anyone who signs up :)

And all posts are recorded against the username.

>
> > That's part, but not all, of why most Linux distros caution against
> > getting apps or files from sources besides their repos.  I know it'd be
> > an undertaking for any app's team to check out every 3rd party file
> > that's available for an app like Geany.  I don't pretend to have all the
> > answers.
> >
>
> Well most files are simply non-executable data files. Short of having
> malicious content specifically crafted to trigger bugs in
> Geany/GTK+/GLib/etc. code, they can't do much. Obviously if you install
> a filetype file which lists external commands for Geany to run, they
> could contain whatever is listed there, be it `rm -rf /` or whatever
> malicious thing, but the files/commands are easy to examine either
> directly or through the GUI.

Yes, like everything found on the internet, check it!!!

Geany is an IDE, that means its intended users are programmers so they
are expected to have more knowledge than random users, Mozilla is a
browser used mostly by computer illiterate users and quite rightly
takes more steps to ensure its users safety.

>
> > Mozilla, among others, started making addon devs sign their .xpi
> > packages for a reason - though they don't use PGP signatures. Mozilla
> > reviews addons before making them available on AMO.  Sure, Mozilla has
> > LOTS of cash.  Again, I don't have all the answers.
> >
>
> Heh, and then they let their certificates expire[0] and break the
> Internet for all it's users :)
>
> But more seriously, this is one of the reasons the Geany-Plugins[1]
> project exists; to provide a curated, tested, maintained set of plugins
> that should be OK to use. It's theoretically possible for bad code to
> get into the plugins, just like in any project with multiple
> contributors, but it's presumably less likely than some random plugin
> from the Internet.

And the Geany plugins are available in most distros repos, albeit
often somewhat behind the latest.

Cheers
Lex

>
> Regards,
> Matthew Brush
>
> [0]:
> https://hacks.mozilla.org/2019/05/technical-details-on-the-recent-firefox-add-on-outage/
> [1]: https://github.com/geany/geany-plugins
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