Give users hint that pkg installs work differently #5548
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Users should not have to open the Cask file to figure out why one cask installs differently than another. Closes Homebrew#5402.
Give users hint that pkg installs work differently
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I definitely saw the message, tho it scared me more than explained what was actually happening. The message was like, "pkg installers can do anything... now give us your root password!" |
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@jm3 your summary is unfortunately true. In practice I'm sure most pkg installers are fine, but they are permitted to run arbitrary postflight scripts, and it is hard to know what they are doing. The same is true when you double-click on a pkg in Finder. There has been some talk about improving transparency and configurability by pulling open pkg files as archives and linking to their contents as we do with other Casks (#5442), and a small amount of effort toward that goal (#5622). However, quite a bit more work and practical experimentation would have to be done to make that actually work. |
I’d argue this doesn’t necessarily concern us. We’ve (correctly) steered away from being a discoverability service, which means you have to specifically chose apps to install and you should know what they are (you wouldn’t install an app just because you searched for a name and liked it, right?). We do have a responsibility to check the links are correct and pointing to official sources, but nothing more after that. An app can be just as bad as a pkg (so what if it doesn’t ask for your password, sensitive information can be compromised from a regular user; the system itself is secondary and can just be reinstalled). |
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@vitorgalvao I take your point. The PRs and issues above are not really about security, but more about enabling flexibility and cool hacks as sketched out in #6369. Improved transparency is only an ancillary benefit, and transparency in itself does not improve security; it merely lowers the barrier for auditing. Anyway, it is an academic discussion unless someone does substantial further work on the matter. |
Users should not have to open the Cask file to figure out why one
cask installs differently than another.
Closes #5402.