Re: Intel UI scripting
Re: Intel UI scripting
- Subject: Re: Intel UI scripting
- From: Bill Cheeseman <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 06:33:44 -0400
- Thread-topic: Intel UI scripting
on 2006-06-23 12:36 AM, Scott Doenges at email@hidden wrote:
> Bill, I'm sure you would know better than I - what are your thoughts on this
> as a potential security issue?
I've debated that with the Apple engineers. I don't see the risk from GUI
Scripting as being any more serious than the risk from AppleScript in
general. After all, any disabled person who wants to use assistive
applications has to turn on the "Enable access for assistive devices"
setting and leave it on all the time.
But Apple feels differently, and they've thought it through much more deeply
than I. You've done some great detective work to find that invisible file. I
suspect, however, that your bug report will result in Apple's simply
implementing the security mechanism differently so that it's harder to
subvert.
As of Tiger, there is a new mechanism available that developers can use to
authorize a specific application to make use of the accessibility API
without turning on the system-wide setting. I plan to implement it in UI
Browser 2.0. It allows a one-time authorization dialog to mark a specific
application as "trusted." You will be asked at install time, or maybe as an
application preference, to designate UI Browser as a "trusted" application.
After you authorize it with an administrator password, from then on UI
Browser's accessibility features will work on that machine whether "Enable
access for assistive devices" is turned on or not. This actually improves
security, since you don't have to turn on the System preference for all apps
just to use one app.
However, GUI Scripting would still require turning on the System preference,
unless Apple changed the AppleScript Utility's "Enable GUI Scripting"
setting so that it really only applied to GUI Scripting. Today, it is
exactly equivalent to turning on accessibility system-wide. A good solution
would be a scripting addition that puts up the standard system authorization
dialog to enter administrator authorization, perhaps to make a specific
script trusted. Maybe I'll write one.
In the meantime, if you distribute scripts that turn on GUI Scripting or
accessibility, you really should include some sort of authorization routine
for the benefit of those users who do feel that turning on accessibility
could be a security risk.
--
Bill Cheeseman - email@hidden
Quechee Software, Quechee, Vermont, USA
http://www.quecheesoftware.com
PreFab Software - http://www.prefab.com/scripting.html
The AppleScript Sourcebook - http://www.AppleScriptSourcebook.com
Vermont Recipes - http://www.stepwise.com/Articles/VermontRecipes
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