Subject: Re: bug#58774: 29.0.50; [WISH]: Let us make EWW browse WWW Org files correctly

From: Max Nikulin <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2022 22:35:57 +0700

On 27/10/2022 11:55, Jean Louis wrote:
> 
> Now is clear that main problem here is that Org advertises somewhere
> to be "text" in MIME context, while it is not, it is by default
> "application" and thus unsafe, see:
...
> Text Media Types
> https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc6838#section-4.2.1

I do not see any problem or any difference what MIME type you are going 
to associate with Org mode. I agree with Arne that text/... type is more 
appropriate for a format readable as text. I do not see any 
contradictions with that RFC.

"Org Mode
Your life in plain text"

Chromium is able to display text/x-org internally just as text/plain and 
I like it as a way to preview and review file contents. I have not 
managed to configure Firefox to achieve the same behavior that allows to 
avoid an external application (certainly not Emacs at first).

> We can't just speak of safety alone when we are in general
> computing environment, we must also speak of usefulness.

I do not mind to have org-view-mode that saves me from execution some 
code unintentionally. Since most of the code was written without having 
in mind such feature, I expect a lot of iterations before all 
possibilities to run code will be plumbed. I suspect that it is possible 
to ruin whole protection by a small piece of elisp code. I am unaware of 
sandboxing in Emacs. I expect that making Org mode safe enough will 
require a lot of efforts by developers.

Your are pushing Org to rather hostile environment: highly automated 
attacks to distribute exploits, market of breached computers listening 
for remote commands. A running cryptominer would be rather innocent 
consequence, through the same backdoor you may receive an encryptor or 
various stuff searching for credentials and access tokens in your files.

Emacs is protected mostly by its low popularity. A lot of efforts have 
been invested in browser making attacks more expensive, but still 
attractive due to possible benefits. I do not like to increase surface 
for attacks. Someone may create a plugin targeting Emacs users just 
because it would be easy enough.

Consider converting Org files to HTML as an unpleasant tax for the sake 
of safety.

> All I want is to access my personal read-only Org files by using WWW
> and browse from one to the other by using links.

How are you going to distinguish your personal files and arbitrary files 
from non-trusted sources? By signing your files and maintaining list of 
trusted certificates?

For personal notes I would expect e.g. private instance of nextcloud 
file share (that is internally HTTP server), not accessing files 
directly through HTTP.