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Signature app in email breaks thru workspaces

Tags:
  • Email
  • Ubuntu
August 21, 2014 8:19:13 PM

Gents:

Running Ubuntu_14.04 on AMD965/GD70/NV650 system. Twelve (12)Gig ram. AT&T Yahoo webmail service.

I just read the THW article SNEAK ATTACK ... by Paul Wagenseil. That article details malware breaking free of its "sandbox" to snipe at other programs. I was reminded of a "signature app" associated with a banks email to me that broke free of the defined workspace and **ran all-over** my computer splashing variously demands for process(?) that ought to have been limited to the Yahoo webmail program in a single workspace.

I needed to do an electronic signature ( 1st time ) and evidently the signature-app was tied in to the email cause I clicked-a-button and whammo! Naturally I'm on-the-phone with a bank-teller during this process.

Anyrate ... as the sinature-app started I observered the signature app was not confined to either the email interface or to the single workspace. Impossible eh? I'd say YES impossible if I had not been sitting at the keyboard trying to bring it under control as it crashed through windows and tab ... I was using other workspaces for "help". But, everything got crushed under the "weight" of the signature-app.

It stopped the rampage ONLY after I got my chosen signatures in place and mailed off. No evident damage or leftovers. Obviously a major break in security for me ... and a serious failure of Ubuntu to keep its ducks and geese apart! My belief in the stability of a Linux system is shot-to-Hades. The bank-teller had not a clue what happened. But, what happened to my system? Back in the 1990s I had an FFT app run wild on an old Silicon-Graphics mini-computer ... over-writing everything and killing that required unplugging the fridge-size box for an hour! However this is 2014. Any observations appreciated.


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