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List:       kde-usability
Subject:    Security and usability
From:       Roland Seuhs <roland.seuhs () hasos ! com>
Date:       2003-08-18 10:41:34
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Hi!

I've followed the discussion about KDE3 defaults, especially the part about cookies \
and how evil they are supposed to be. To get it straight, I'm a web programmer and I \
use cookies all the time and I'm more and more angry at the cookie-hysteria.

Has there been a single recorded event in which a cookie has caused actual harm to \
some user? I don't think so.

The problem is that the paradigm that "security and usability is a tradeoff" is \
repeated so often that it's seen as some universal law while in reality it's \
basically nonsense.

Let me explain:

In my opinion, security can only be achieved WITH usability. Any measures to make \
something more secure by reducing usability will essentially have the opposite \
effect.

So what will happen if cookies in Konq will be disabled or made single-session by \
default as some people suggested? Konqueror will become essentially useless for many \
sites - some users will be pissed and turn on cookies, the rest will be pissed and \
use another browser: Security gain = zero.

The current situation in which the user is bothered with a popup when submitting a \
form or getting a cookie isn't much better. There are 2 possibilities:

- Either a user understands the popup:
	He'l say "what idiotic message, if I submit a form I know that data is transmitted, \
no need to tell me" and ignore it

- Or a user doesn't understand the popup:
	He'll ask somebody who will tell him to "press yes and ignore it", then just press \
yes and ignore this and any subsequent popups.

Essentially, all the useless popups (not only in KDE, but in many other DEs and \
programs) are training the users to press yes and ignore popups.

Anybody who thinks that these popups are increasing security is just wrong: First he \
is wrong because those popups are ignored, secondly he is wrong because cookies and \
forms are no security problems. I repeat it: If you say "But it's just about \
educating the users that the connection is not encrypted" - You are wrong: Users will \
ignore the popup, many won't even read it. It simply doesn't matter. If pressing "OK" \
is the only way to use the website, users will press "OK", no matter what you write \
into that annoying popup.

The reverse is true: Because people are trained to ignore popups, the inportant ones \
get unnoticed and will also be ignored.

Another example is the file-upload popup which can't even be turned off.

Now the user goes to a website and uploads a file, he intentionally browses for a \
file to transfer and chooses the file himself. The chances that he doesn't know what \
he is doing and will transfer /etc/passwd by accident are pretty slim. And the hopes \
for a potential attacker to set up a website for accidentally uploaded password files \
are even slimmer. The whole dialog is useless and nonsense. It is just repeating what \
the user already did (trying to upload a file) and yet another useless "are you sure" \
dialog.

Security can only be achieved *with* usability. Which means *less* popups and *less* \
hassles.

A perfect example would be scp ("fish" in Konqueror)

The user/password dialog should contain a checkbox that reads "always allow this \
computer access to user@machine (store public key on remote machine)" which would \
automatically append the public key to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys2 on the remote machine.

Guess what would happen?

- People would stop using ftp and use scp instead. Encrypted passwords -> more \
                security
- People would stop putting user:password@machine ftp/fish links into bookmarks -> \
more security

Or even better, when Konqueror is used in ftp-mode with a username and password, \
Konqueror could check if a ssh/scp server is also listening and if yes (and only if \
yes) ask the user wether to try scp instead of ftp. (This is an occasion in which a \
popup would actually make sense: It's rare enough that it doesn't cause a flood and \
it actually offers REAL security gains) But don't do it on anonymous ftp-connections \
(There are no passwords at risk and the user is unlikely to have a ssh account \
anyway) and only ask once for a host.

However all this works only if it's usable and automatic. 

Sniffing passwords from ftp and php3 accounts are *REAL* security issues that cause \
*REAL* problems, unlike the hype around cookies and html-forms which are basically \
just hysteria with not a single documented case of harm caused.

Dumping the cookie, html-form and file-upload popups and introducing rarely shown \
"use scp instead of ftp" popups would increase security *BECAUSE* it would reduce \
hassles and popups and concentrate the user's attention on the things that actually \
matter.

Roland

-- 
Hardware: The parts of a computer system that can be kicked

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