From: Husain Alshehhi <husain@alshehhi.io>
To: emacs-devel@gnu.org
Subject: Security in the emacs package ecosystem
Date: Sun, 15 May 2022 20:53:31 +0000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <8735hatt4m.fsf@alshehhi.io> (raw)
Hello,
This issue is not new and seems to have been discussed before:
<https://emacs-devel.gnu.narkive.com/atiq1AoP/security-of-the-emacs-package-system-elpa-melpa-and-marmalade>
I was wondering if things have changed since then.
To summarize: most users in emacs downloads packages directly from the git repository. This is a security threat as there is nothing to prevent a malicious change from going to users. The malicious change could be posted through a hack, or could be posted by the owner of the package (in extreme cases). Is there anything currently in the ecosystem, or package repository, to prevent these sorts of issues? Are there any initiatives or ideas to address these issues? If not, what is the recommended (and practical) ways to be safe?
(Some solutions that are typically thrown out: manual code review of every package installed. Use distro package manager and have emacs packages go through the normal package review process of each distro. Package signing. melpa/elpa stamp of approval.)
Husain
next reply other threads:[~2022-05-15 20:53 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 14+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2022-05-15 20:53 Husain Alshehhi [this message]
2023-02-04 13:12 ` Security in the emacs package ecosystem Ihor Radchenko
2023-02-04 16:59 ` Stefan Kangas
2023-02-17 10:21 ` Ihor Radchenko
2023-02-17 10:23 ` Ihor Radchenko
2023-02-17 15:54 ` Stefan Kangas
2023-02-18 10:57 ` Ihor Radchenko
2023-02-18 11:49 ` Eli Zaretskii
2023-02-20 5:18 ` Richard Stallman
2023-02-20 6:23 ` Po Lu
2023-02-20 17:38 ` chad
2023-03-11 19:45 ` Thomas Koch
2023-03-14 4:00 ` Richard Stallman
2023-02-18 11:54 ` Making `package-check-signature' more restrictive by default Stefan Kangas
Reply instructions:
You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:
* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
and reply-to-all from there: mbox
Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style
List information: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/
* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
switches of git-send-email(1):
git send-email \
--in-reply-to=8735hatt4m.fsf@alshehhi.io \
--to=husain@alshehhi.io \
--cc=emacs-devel@gnu.org \
/path/to/YOUR_REPLY
https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html
* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line
before the message body.
Code repositories for project(s) associated with this public inbox
https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/emacs.git
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox;
as well as URLs for read-only IMAP folder(s) and NNTP newsgroup(s).