Comments on: Just Open It

By: systemsboy

systemsboy — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 21:52:56 +0000

OH NO! That’s terrible! Quite possibly this broke at 10.5.6? Man, that sucks!

Oh well. I think I’m done messing with this. Too much hassle. Let me know if you make any progress with it and, if necessary, I’ll update the post.

-systemsboy

By: Peter da Silva

Peter da Silva — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 15:06:04 +0000

I’ve started getting files downloaded from Safari coming up with the “OH NO, THIS WAS DOWNLOADED” dialog again, I don’t know exactly when it started happening but I’ve verified my DownloadAssessment.plist file is correct.

By: Peter da Silva

Peter da Silva — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:23:33 +0000

As for whether dialogs for every downloaded file are good ideas or not, well, I was a UNIX/Windows network admin for 20 years, with virtually all the desktops running Windows by 2000. Between 1997 (when Microsoft introduced “Active Desktop”) and 2005 (when I left the job) I got regularly approached by users asking “Um, Peter, I just clicked the wrong button again and I think I have a virus”. That “again” is significant. What that meant was that even after clicking the “Install” (or “Open”, or “Yes”, or “OK”) button once, they were still so habituated into approving these dialogs they clicked through out of habit. And most of my users were PhD Engineers and professional programmers. Sure, one or two might not have been the sharpest knife in the drawer but they were none of them spoons.

On the other hand, I only had ONE user approach me with “Um, Peter, I just downloaded a file and ran it again and I think I have a virus”. That means that people are able to learn not to accidentally infect themselves through opening a file after they downloaded it.

That means that as long as you have disabled ‘Open “Safe” files after downloading’ in Safari, and haven’t turned on the equivalent “auto-infect” option in other browsers, you’re more likely to benefit from *not* getting habituated to approving security dialogs, than you are from being reminded that you downloaded a file (which, by the way, is sitting there in a folder named Downloads)…

This kind of security dialog is nothing but security theatre.

By: systemsboy

systemsboy — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:19:59 +0000

Fascinating! Thanks!

-systemsboy

By: Peter da Silva

Peter da Silva — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:00:31 +0000

It might also benefit those exploring these waters to examine the Info.plist file in the Camino application bundle and observe the LSFileQuarantineEnabled and LSFileQuarantineExcludedPathPatterns keys, as well as the file /System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Exceptions.plist .

By: systemsboy

systemsboy — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 17:07:12 +0000

Excellent! Thanks, Fabio!

-systemsboy

By: fabio

fabio — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 16:16:58 +0000

You may set default UTI handlers from the command line with duti.

http://duti.sourceforge.net

http://codesnippets.joyent.com/posts/show/1643