Ask HN: Why does Zoom Desktop examine all processes and arguments? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Why does Zoom Desktop examine all processes and arguments?

#11

Post by _sgianelli » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 8:49 PM UTC

wins32767 wrote: post #6

If I had to guess it's for screen sharing.

If so that seems like a great place for someone like Apple or Microsoft to offer an API to bolster security and privacy

Re: Ask HN: Why does Zoom Desktop examine all processes and arguments?

#12

Post by luke2m » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 8:49 PM UTC

> Is there any way to prevent it?

Use a flatpak

Re: Ask HN: Why does Zoom Desktop examine all processes and arguments?

#13

Post by mishafb » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 8:50 PM UTC

akira2501 wrote: post #10

> Is there any way to prevent it? Put it into it's own namespace, and only allow it to connect to your X11 session over TCP.

I think only Wayland has real security, X11 lets you do anything

Re: Ask HN: Why does Zoom Desktop examine all processes and arguments?

#14

Post by akira2501 » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 8:50 PM UTC

sithadmin wrote: post #9

wins32767 wrote: post #6

If I had to guess it's for screen sharing.

This. It enables single-app share, instead of just capturing entire displays.

Unless I'm missing something.. all of the required information is available through the X11 protocol. Reading the command lines of the processes is unnecessary and provides data that isn't useful in the window sharing context.

Re: Ask HN: Why does Zoom Desktop examine all processes and arguments?

#15

Post by yjftsjthsd-h » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 8:50 PM UTC

sithadmin wrote: post #9

wins32767 wrote: post #6

If I had to guess it's for screen sharing.

This. It enables single-app share, instead of just capturing entire displays.

How would that work? I would expect it to enumerate X clients, not PIDs

Re: Ask HN: Why does Zoom Desktop examine all processes and arguments?

#16

Post by phendrenad2 » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 8:52 PM UTC

akira2501 wrote: post #10

> Is there any way to prevent it? Put it into it's own namespace, and only allow it to connect to your X11 session over TCP.

Does that prevent it from reading from `/proc`?

Re: Ask HN: Why does Zoom Desktop examine all processes and arguments?

#17

Post by wwweston » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 8:53 PM UTC

tryauuum wrote: post #8

(incompetence here) Maybe it's like discord, it does the same to display messages like "$username is playing terraria right now"

Discord leaks which apps you're using to other people?

Re: Ask HN: Why does Zoom Desktop examine all processes and arguments?

#18

Post by tyingq » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 8:53 PM UTC

wins32767 wrote: post #6

If I had to guess it's for screen sharing.

Enumerating window handles and titles would be more suited to that. It will need that anyway to share the window. On a multi-user system, it could see processes attached to displays it has no access to.

Re: Ask HN: Why does Zoom Desktop examine all processes and arguments?

#19

Post by barbazoo » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 8:53 PM UTC

ianlevesque wrote: post #5

Zoom is basically malware with video chat.

Elaborate please

Re: Ask HN: Why does Zoom Desktop examine all processes and arguments?

#20

Post by Osiris » Tue, Aug 17, 2021, 8:54 PM UTC

wwweston wrote: post #17

tryauuum wrote: post #8

(incompetence here) Maybe it's like discord, it does the same to display messages like "$username is playing terraria right now"

Discord leaks which apps you're using to other people?

It's a feature.