MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Clara HD (Pre-FBInk) rmkit on my Clara HD

elinkser · 09-30-2023, 08:24 AM

POSSIBLE SECURITY ISSUES OF RMKIT

Since rmkit makes it easier to quickly develop cross-platform apps, some might roll their eyes and say, "Great, more junk apps".

Security-conscious people should also be concerned that a proliferation of low quality apps makes a nice target for malware.

-C++ requires effort and skill to be done correctly, and therefore securely.

-Kobo Nickel is designed for reading, not networking. It lacks up-to-date kernel, fine-grained permissions in the user partition, and kernel support for firewalls, among other issues.

How can this problem be addressed?
Kobo is even less equipped to deal with this than old Windows was.

Some random ill-thought out musings:

- Use InkBox instead of Nickel

- Only allow signed apps to launch in rmkit

- Run an app scanner over apps in the rmkit repository.

- Run a user-space firewall in rmkit (all i/o accesses only allowed through "secure" api)

- Require users who want to run Simple framework to self-sign any app they want to give run permission to.

Who would do all this work?
Not me - I'm not a dev, and definitely not a C++ dev.
But I want to enjoy my Kobo in a secure way.

09-30-2023, 08:24 AM	#21
elinkser Addict Posts: 242 Karma: 146236 Join Date: Oct 2022 Device: Kobo Clara HD	POSSIBLE SECURITY ISSUES OF RMKIT POSSIBLE SECURITY ISSUES OF RMKIT Since rmkit makes it easier to quickly develop cross-platform apps, some might roll their eyes and say, "Great, more junk apps". Security-conscious people should also be concerned that a proliferation of low quality apps makes a nice target for malware. -C++ requires effort and skill to be done correctly, and therefore securely. -Kobo Nickel is designed for reading, not networking. It lacks up-to-date kernel, fine-grained permissions in the user partition, and kernel support for firewalls, among other issues. How can this problem be addressed? Kobo is even less equipped to deal with this than old Windows was. Some random ill-thought out musings: - Use InkBox instead of Nickel - Only allow signed apps to launch in rmkit - Run an app scanner over apps in the rmkit repository. - Run a user-space firewall in rmkit (all i/o accesses only allowed through "secure" api) - Require users who want to run Simple framework to self-sign any app they want to give run permission to. Who would do all this work? Not me - I'm not a dev, and definitely not a C++ dev. But I want to enjoy my Kobo in a secure way. Last edited by elinkser; 09-30-2023 at 11:28 AM.