Re: Security Use Cases - Very rough first draft

Hi Dave,

To be clear I share your perspective that EPUB punting on rigorously
defining the execution model including security aspects (*) is unfortunate
and I think that as part of the vectors towards Portable Web Publications
this omission MUST be addressed. I had hoped it would be addressed
horizontally for all content in the Web Platform in general not just
publications and I guess I'm still thinking that this would be the ideal
outcome. So this is not an argument by me to skip this work but rather that
it (and anything else that comes up that isn't explicitly "publication"-y)
be done generally for the overall Web Platform, if possible.

By way of example, to very slightly edit your statement "if I send that
script in a [Chrome App] to Google's [Chrome] Store, then it becomes
Google's problem, and why should they trust my code?"

--Bill

(*) I was remiss in not parenthetically noting that while, in my view,
general EPUB specs punted on this, the draft specs for Scriptable
Components developed as part of the EPUB for Education profile do add rigor
for the special case of active content embedded within a publication whose
outermost content is defined to be declarative only.

On Fri, Aug 19, 2016 at 9:40 AM, Dave Cramer <dauwhe@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Fri, Aug 19, 2016 at 12:13 PM, Bill McCoy <whmccoy@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Most if not all of these requirements do not seem to be  specific to "Web
> > Publications" as the term is defined by DPUB IG.
> >
> > It is of course true that publications must not compromise the basic
> > security model of the Web.
> >
> > Unfortunately, the definition of that general security model and the
> > associated runtime life cycle isn't entirely clear, especially when it
> comes
> > to content and applications stored on / executing from local systems.
> And
> > I'm not sure it's the job of DPUB IG to attempt to define with precision
> > that general model. Or, if we do take on the job of fully defining that
> > security model, we should realize we aren't doing it just for
> "Publications"
> > but really for Web content in general.
> >
> > https://www.w3.org/TR/runtime/ is for example recent work in this area
> > started by the now defunct System Applications WG. Some  of this seems
> very
> > applicable to Web Publications. That it's unfinished orphaned work is
> > perhaps a warning sign that it may not be an easy job to take on but
> perhaps
> > someone could adopt it (which may be preferable to starting over).
> Whether
> > that's DPUB IG or a successor vs. say the Web Platform WG is another
> > question... and I guess to me this is all logically part of the Web
> Platform
> > itself.
> >
> > EPUB specifications to date have clearly punted on this but one reason
> was
> > that we were hoping that work on Web Applications at W3C would be paving
> the
> > way in terms of more rigorously defining the Web security model
> especially
> > for offline/local content.
> >
>
> I think this is a critical part of our work, and one of the major
> limitations of EPUB. Right now most EPUB reading systems don't support
> scripting, partly because of UI conflicts and partly due to security.
> If I write a script on my own website, it's my responsibility. But if
> I send that script ian EPUB to Google's Play Store, then n it becomes

Google's problem, and why should they trust my code?
>
> Another informative post from Baldur:
> https://www.baldurbjarnason.com/notes/some-notes-on-security/
>
> Dave
>
>


-- 

Bill McCoy
Executive Director
International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF)
email: bmccoy@idpf.org
mobile: +1 206 353 0233