[Passwordsafe-devel] Semi-automatic update option?

[ronys <ro...@gm...>]

Hi,

Users have been asking for an automatic update mechanism for =
PasswordSafe, so I've begun thinking on how to implement it:

I've never liked applications that take the liberty of connecting a =
server without asking me, to check for updates and who knows what else. =
So here's how I'd go about it for PasswordSafe:

- The Help->About dialog would have a "check for update" button. This =
button will initiate a connection (described in a minute) IF AND ONLY IF =
there's no "open" database, that is, there's no sensitive data in the =
application's memory. My main worry here is that an attacker can do a =
man-in-the-middle attack and find some kind of exploit (e.g., buffer =
overflow) to access and download sensitive data.

- The update button will open a hardcoded URL, something like =
"https://passwordsafe.sf.net/latest.txt" This will have the version =
information for the latest & greatest, and a URL for downloading it.

- I'm wondering if it's worth adding signature verification capability, =
so that the downloaded version can be verified as authentic. On one =
hand, this is easily subverted if the attacker replaces the victim's =
original version with one that fakes the validity check, on the other =
hand, if the attacker can do this, then the attacker can already do what =
he wants with the user's data, so the validity check is the least of his =
worries...

I'd be very happy to get comments/criticism/suggestions on the above.

	Cheers,

		Rony