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Linux Zoom client proactively reading everything written to X11 clipboard

hachyderm.io

41–50 of 176 posts

Re: Linux Zoom client proactively reading everything written to X11 clipboard

#41

Qubes 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

In the last couple of years, my only contact with Zoom is the scam webinar invitations from month old domains.

At this point I probably wouldn’t realize a legitimate Zoom meeting was legitimate.

Re: Linux Zoom client proactively reading everything written to X11 clipboard

#42
post #21

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.

Android allows apps to read from the clipboard at will, though it does show a toast. GrapheneOS, I believe, asks for permission first.

Thankfully iOS rolled out a permissions prompt for this. Pretty illuminating just how often other apps read the clipboard, e.g. Google Maps reading my clipboard every time I tapped on the text field to search for a destination.

Re: Linux Zoom client proactively reading everything written to X11 clipboard

#43
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Related Issue with discussion: https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues/issues/1142

Re: Linux Zoom client proactively reading everything written to X11 clipboard

#44

There is no such thing as an "X11 clipboard" that something can be written to. As the poster goes on to allude, X11 has a concept of a "selection" (a primary and a secondary one). It goes roughly like this: when you select a text in a window, the X client tells the X server "I have the selection now", when you paste in another window, the client behind the other window asks "who has the selection?" and requests the s…

It's not chromium. But what's happening here is that even if you don't click paste, zoom is actively listening to clipboard events and consuming pastes.

Tbh, if they aren't harvesting clipbakrds data which is a weird thing to do and is unlikely, this doesn't really mean much. Anyways any X client can read.

I suspect it's something like: a bug report that said that I copied the link but when I opened zoom and pasted it it didn't it work. I.e, they probably closed the source application and thus the selection owner is gone, and the selection is gone too. This fixes that. I would test that maybe. See if paste after source app close works. Then again, if you use a ownership changing clipboard manager this shudnt be a problem.

Re: Linux Zoom client proactively reading everything written to X11 clipboard

#45
post #3
post #2

That's bad news. Don't use Zoom.

That's wildly impractical advice for many. Just use Firefox, or Chromium if you must.

Or just use Google Meet on all browsers, which is more practical to use than Zoom.

Zero software to install.

Re: Linux Zoom client proactively reading everything written to X11 clipboard

#47
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's wildly impractical advice for many. Just use Firefox, or Chromium if you must.

Spinning up a conference host for a small office is fairly trivial =3 https://jitsi.org/downloads/

Perhaps things have gotten better over time, but I did this 4 or 5 years ago and it was anything but trivial. I got it working, but it was a huge pain to set up.

Re: Linux Zoom client proactively reading everything written to X11 clipboard

#49
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spinning up a conference host for a small office is fairly trivial =3 https://jitsi.org/downloads/

Perhaps things have gotten better over time, but I did this 4 or 5 years ago and it was anything but trivial. I got it working, but it was a huge pain to set up.

The docker image build recipes should be easy to find these days.

Usually it is just local networking appliance rules that cause issues for some users. Likely a great learning experience for the uninitiated. Have a great day =3

Re: Linux Zoom client proactively reading everything written to X11 clipboard

#50
The "clipboard" as it is implemented in many (most?) operating systems today, only exists because it's a legacy idea that hasn't died. If it were freshly invented today, it would never get past even the most lenient privacy review.

Think about the pitch for the feature: "So, we're going to make this in the OS, where the user can highlight anything in any application, invoke a command, and then that thing (which could be a sensitive password, private personal information, or the codes to a nuclear weapon) will instantly become available for all applications on the system to read and do anything with. Uhh... NO THANKS!

Ideally, if an application wants to read from the clipboard, it should explicitly ask the user for permission, or the user should have to specify the exact app he's copy/pasting to. This reduces the clipboard's ease of use, but at least makes it NOT a truck sized privacy hole.

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