Skip to content

Commit

Permalink
Add a consideration for weakening security boundaries
Browse files Browse the repository at this point in the history
This is with regards to proposals such as WICG#35 which might be acceptable
from a privacy perspective (assuming collaboration between sites in a
set), but could be challenging from a security perspective (assuming a
compromised site in the set).
  • Loading branch information
johannhof committed Feb 23, 2022
1 parent 393cc7c commit f0f5a21
Showing 1 changed file with 12 additions and 0 deletions.
12 changes: 12 additions & 0 deletions README.md
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -38,6 +38,8 @@ of the [Privacy Community Group](https://privacycg.github.io/).
- [Signed Assertions and set discovery instead of static lists](#signed-assertions-and-set-discovery-instead-of-static-lists)
- [Self-attestation and technical enforcement](#self-attestation-and-technical-enforcement)
- [Origins instead of registrable domains](#origins-instead-of-registrable-domains)
- [Security and Privacy Considerations](#security-and-privacy-considerations)
- [Avoid weakening new and existing security boundaries](#avoid-weakening-new-and-existing-security-boundaries)
- [Prior Art](#prior-art)
- [Acknowledgements](#acknowledgements)
- [Appendix](#appendix)
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -342,6 +344,16 @@ This origin-defined approach has additional complications to resolve:
These complexities are likely solvable while keeping most of this design, should browsers believe
this is worthwhile.

# Security and Privacy Considerations

## Avoid weakening new and existing security boundaries

Changes to the web platform that tighten boundaries for increased privacy often have positive effects on security as well. For example, cache partitioning restricts [cache probing](https://xsleaks.dev/docs/attacks/cache-probing/) attacks and third-party cookie blocking makes it much harder to perform [CSRF](https://owasp.org/www-community/attacks/csrf) by default. Where user agents intend to use First-Party Sets to replace or extend existing boundaries based on *site* or *origin* on the web, it is important to consider not only the effects on privacy, but also on security.

Sites in a common FPS may not trust each other to the same degree as origins in a same-site relationship would, and may have greatly varying security requirements. Within reason, it should not be possible for a compromised site in an FPS to affect the integrity of other sites in the set.

This consideration will always involve a necessary trade-off between gains like performance or interoperability and risks for users and sites. User agents should facilitate additional mechanisms such as a per-origin opt-in or opt-out to manage this trade-off. Site owners should be aware of the potential security implications of creating an FPS and form only the smallest possible set of domains that encompasses user workflows/journeys across an application, especially when some origins in the set opt into features that may leave them open to potential security attacks from other origins in the set.

# Prior Art

- Firefox's [entity list](https://github.com/mozilla-services/shavar-prod-lists#entity-list)
Expand Down

0 comments on commit f0f5a21

Please sign in to comment.