OpenOffice.org security concerns

Posted Aug 17, 2006 13:34 UTC (Thu) by kfiles (subscriber, #11628) [Link]

I concur with this sentiment. We should not be curtailing the power of the scripting framework and UNO API in OOo; much like perl CPAN modules and Eclipse plugins, these lead to powerful 3rd party add-ons (like the excellent PDF Export support that was available only as a "macro" while OOo 1.1.3's PDF export was very rudimentary).

However, such code should be consciously installed by the user from standalone packages, not piggybacking on any document they open.

For document macros, a simple sand-boxed subset of features (those that can be used to automate changes in the document, perform field validation, etc.) makes more sense.

If a content provider wants a user to have more powerful macros installed, they should distribute those as a separate package, one which tells the user, e.g. "This package is requesting the ability to: change your security settings; modify files on your drive; decrypt your passwords; send email using your email client."

--kirby