I'm not surprised by news like this anymore. When will Linux distributions properly sandbox our applications?
Our phones have had a better permission system for years.
Linux Zoom client proactively reading everything written to X11 clipboard
21–30 of 176 posts
Re: Linux Zoom client proactively reading everything written to X11 clipboard
#22Par for the course when running a proprietary application. If doing that on Linux, can you imagine what it and others do under Windows ? As people running Linux should know, you cannot trust proprietary applications.
I would rather have a nice popup on first attempt "this application is monitoring your clipboard, allow?", ideally with that process completely suspended while that prompt is up.
This should be behind a toggle driven by intent, rather than something allowed by default. Default stance on trust should be "don't". Open source has nothing to do with it, when a typo while installing with a package manager means you might accidentally install something else (a common attack vector).
Re: Linux Zoom client proactively reading everything written to X11 clipboard
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Srsly, all those neck beards who over simplify the problem with a flippant "don't use zoom", as if everyone has the luxury to skip every job interview and employer meeting that absolutely requires Zoom. I wish I could live in their world where every problem is solved by simply avoiding that problem.
Use a dedicated, otherwise empty account for job interviews. Linux is multi-process, _multi-user_ since forever. No need to leave a password manager, online banking, andwhatnot accessible in the background during an interview. And yeah: stop. using. X11. For God's sake!
>And yeah: stop. using. X11.
Fine words, until the GPU driver goes sideways in Wayland. And... I like running multi-seat headless sessions on my local LAN hosts for several reasons. =3
Re: Linux Zoom client proactively reading everything written to X11 clipboard
#24Re: Linux Zoom client proactively reading everything written to X11 clipboard
#25Not the first time Zoom abuses privilege. A few years back, there was something about gaining root on MacOS via Zoom due to shady execution on their end. They've lost my trust since then, and I'll only run it sandboxed: https://gist.github.com/cielavenir/02f322e322a2a3555dbf2b38f... I always ask (1) why does an app require installation and (2) why would it require root? There are valid answers for both, but realistic…
Yes Apple even blocked their app because they refused to fix it. Eventually they did and unfortunately they were allowed again.
It wasn't really root as much as an open backdoor on a TCP port as far as I recall.
Re: Linux Zoom client proactively reading everything written to X11 clipboard
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Use a dedicated, otherwise empty account for job interviews. Linux is multi-process, _multi-user_ since forever. No need to leave a password manager, online banking, andwhatnot accessible in the background during an interview. And yeah: stop. using. X11. For God's sake!
Just use a browser instead of some silly client, problem mostly solved. Use X11 or Wayland or whatever else you want, for God's sake. I don't remember any god ever claiming salvation lies in abandoning the most functional display server on the market so I'll just keep on using X11. If and when Wayland or some other alternative ever becomes as useful as X11 I might hop over but for now Wayland is a solution in search…
It takes experience to learn why people call it the "bleeding edge". GPU acceleration is often broken in a lot of distros, and it is unkind to new users that have a panic attack dropping into a CLI shell.
LightDM at least works 99% of the time, being Cross-desktop one can select a Wayland session just fine (great when it is working), or fall back to a software compositor Cinnamon Desktop when things bork after an update. =3
Re: Linux Zoom client proactively reading everything written to X11 clipboard
#27Qubes OS saved me, once again. On it, Zoom only has the access to an empty VM and no access to the clipboard.
Just not using that piece of trash that is zoom would work very well too in this case
Re: Linux Zoom client proactively reading everything written to X11 clipboard
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Srsly, all those neck beards who over simplify the problem with a flippant "don't use zoom", as if everyone has the luxury to skip every job interview and employer meeting that absolutely requires Zoom. I wish I could live in their world where every problem is solved by simply avoiding that problem.
Use a dedicated, otherwise empty account for job interviews. Linux is multi-process, _multi-user_ since forever. No need to leave a password manager, online banking, andwhatnot accessible in the background during an interview. And yeah: stop. using. X11. For God's sake!
Wayland doesn't work stable in kde on my OS yet so I have no choice but to use X11.
However software just shouldn't be trash. No need to blame the display layer for this.
Re: Linux Zoom client proactively reading everything written to X11 clipboard
#29Unrelated to Zoom, but > I noticed it because I make heavy use of a "one-shot paste" tool which fulfills a single paste request and then terminates. Handy for filling in lots of fields of a web form – queue up pastes of several different things, then go to each form field in turn and just hit paste, bam bam bam. This sounds very useful. Is the tool available anywhere? xclip -loops doesn't seem to do the trick, or may…
Turns out, Wayland has wl-copy:
https://man.archlinux.org/man/wl-copy.1
(i was also interested :)
Re: Linux Zoom client proactively reading everything written to X11 clipboard
#30Qubes OS saved me, once again. On it, Zoom only has the access to an empty VM and no access to the clipboard.
What's it like using Qubes? How much friction? I wish I could use some Nix-flavored variant of the sandboxing.
I dumped it after realizing Xen does its damndest in preventing you from hiding VM attributes from Guest OSes.
Proxmox uses KVM, and is easy to configure a VM to make the guest think it's on bare metal.
In the proprietary software space, a LOT of things run badly or refuse to run, or license stupidity with a guest OS. So for me, spoofing bare metal is an essential part of running ilk like Windows and proprietary apps. And also, school remote testing garbage.