Dori explains Dashboard’s Widget (In)Security

11 May 2005 · 0 comments

New in Tiger is Dashboard with its widgets for checking the time, the weather, the charge in your laptop’s battery, your wireless connection and many other utilities. In the last couple of days some concern has arisen about whether these widgets make your Mac insecure: The Problem with Widgets. Today Dori Smith (who wrote the [...]

New in Tiger is Dashboard with its widgets for checking the time, the weather, the charge in your laptop’s battery, your wireless connection and many other utilities. In the last couple of days some concern has arisen about whether these widgets make your Mac insecure: The Problem with Widgets. Today Dori Smith (who wrote the book on Javascript, used in many widgets) gives us some perspective. Read her article for the full story on what the problem is, what to look for and how to secure your Mac.

Macworld: News: Dashboard: Widget (In)Security: Widgets are owned by the user, and can do anything that a user can do. For instance, they can remove files from your home directory without asking permission. They can run anything from the command line that a user can. They can call any AppleScript that a user can. If you’re now starting to get a little nervous, you’ve got the right idea.

[Via Backup Brain.]

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