Re: X-Windows and Client-side Buffer Overruns (was Re: Updated Release)

[Tom <tom@lemuria.org>]

On Fri, Aug 01, 2003 at 01:26:58AM +1000, Russell Coker wrote:
> Using IRC without X access is no great hardship, while using a text based MUA 
> loses significant functionality.  

Uh?
<img content="stupid look on face of an avid mutt user">

> X is currently the main area that SE Linux 
> does not address yet.

True. However, that is not a problem specific to a MUA.


> A mail client wants to access mail files under the user's home directory, this 
> means that the files in question need a separate type as you don't want the 
> mail client to access all the other files in the home directory.  This gives 
> the usual issues of mv followed by file creation giving a different type and 
> preventing things working in a way that novice users can't debug...

I'd do this the same way I did it with my subversion policy: Set up the
mail directory so that only the MUA (running in its own domain) can
access it. That way, the user simply can't mess up file labels.


> The mail client needs to be able to save files (easily managed) and to invoke 
> the web browser and other programs (which may be more difficult).

I've been wanting to create a "downloaded files" domain for netscape
anyways. Did I post about that already? In short, there'd be a
~/Downloads dir with a special type and some auto-trans rules so that
stuff you download and "try out" runs in an untrusted domain, etc.

Maybe we should just create a more general "untrusted files" domain?


> Finally if using kmail then you have to deal with the kdeinit method of 
> program launch...

I smell an SEKDE project on the horizon. From what I've seen, KDE is
way too integrated with itself to behave nicely with SE without changes 
in the KDE code itself.


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