[tor-bugs] #9387 [Tor Launcher]: Tor Launcher/Torbutton should provide a "Security Slider"

Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki blackhole at torproject.org
Tue Feb 3 21:40:44 UTC 2015


#9387: Tor Launcher/Torbutton should provide a "Security Slider"
-------------------------+-------------------------------------------------
     Reporter:           |      Owner:  gk
  mikeperry              |     Status:  new
         Type:           |  Milestone:
  enhancement            |    Version:
     Priority:  major    |   Keywords:  TorBrowserTeam201502, tbb-security,
    Component:  Tor      |  tbb-usability, tbb-linkability, tbb-3.0,
  Launcher               |  extdev-interview, tbb-isec-report,
   Resolution:           |  tbb-4.5-alpha
Actual Points:           |  Parent ID:
       Points:           |
-------------------------+-------------------------------------------------

Comment (by mikeperry):

 Replying to [comment:74 gk]:
 > mikeperry: This is the comment to commit
 7975b2023d5dc9bc0437cb5d5fbfe539448900e4: Originally, I had a similar idea
 but just looking at the particular security level and binding the custom
 pref to it is wrong I think. We need to think about the custom setting
 being bound to the *whole* slider instead. And here is why: Level 4 (or
 "high") is not only about setting the preferences in the High section in
 comment:43 but rather all the preferences in Low-Medium/Low-Medium/High
 must be set accordingly as well in order to guarantee the full protection
 AND making sure there are only 4 partitions of users if they stick to the
 slider and don't prefer custom settings. Or take the default mode: if one
 selects the default mode but disables JavaScript then first of all this is
 no default mode anymore even if no particular preference in that mode is
 changed. Doing this is pretty dangerous as we could easily get some users
 that are in default mode but have JavaScript disabled and some that are in
 that mode but have it enabled. And then maybe some that have
 media.audio.enabled and some not, leading to a much larger partition than
 is good for our users.
 >
 > Hence just the check if any of the security slider related preferences
 got touched. If so, AND we are not in custom mode, set the custom
 checkbox. The only way to set it back currently is via the Torbutton menu.
 We could think about an additional option: if the user manages it to
 manually set all the security slider related preferences back to their
 respective values (which is depending on the current slider level) then
 uncheck the custom checkbox as well.
 >
 > Still guessing at the meaning of the comment a bit: `m_tb_sliderUpdate`
 is only set if we set the slider level on the Torbutton dialog which is
 only possible if the custom checkbox is unchecked. Thus, the reasoning was
 if we get the notification AND `m_tb_sliderUpdate` is not set AND we are
 not in custom mode we can just set it without checking the value of any
 pref.

 Well, the way I use the slider in the high position is as a default state.
 I frequently temporarily allow many sites via NoScript, and sometimes if a
 site needs to perform many redirects, I globally enable script permissions
 for a bit, and then disable them later. I think it is this global script
 enable that is causing my slider to get stuck in the "Custom" position.

 So, in my opinion, this means two things:
 1. I think that the slider should recognize that when I globally disable
 scripts again, "Custom" should become unchecked. Really, I think this
 should be the case for all of our prefs, but globally enabling/disabling
 JS is facilitated by our NoScript UI (for good reason) and may be common.
 1. I think the slider shouldn't actually become locked if "Custom" is set.
 I should be able to drag it and go back to one of the official positions,
 which would uncheck "Custom" and reset all the prefs appropriately.

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/9387#comment:76>
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