Re: Standardizing Firefox's Implementation of Link Fingerprints

[Dave Crocker <[e-mail]>]

Edward Lee wrote:
> For Firefox 3, there are patches [1] that implement Link Fingerprints,
> which provide automatic resource verification for URIs that look like
> http://site.com/file#hash(sha256:abc123) so that link providers can be
> sure that end users download the exact file that the provider intended
> (and not a trojaned download).

Although this sounds like an entirely reasonable option to add to URLs, I'm 
curious just how much of a problem there is with downloads that are trojaned 
using the correct domain name?

For this hashing to be useful, it means that either my client needs to land on 
a surrogate machine or the correct machine needs to be compromised.  In either 
case, the hashing would seem to be useful, on the theory that the hash value 
is vetted when it is developed and is then distributed through an 
uncompromised path.

I'm merely curious how big a problem any of this currently is?

d/
-- 

   Dave Crocker
   Brandenburg InternetWorking
   bbiw.net