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Why does Vimium need permissions to edit my clipboard in version 1.65.1? #3489

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michael-niemand opened this issue Feb 10, 2020 · 22 comments
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@michael-niemand
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Chrome deactivated Vimium and told me it needed addiditional permissions, in particular permissions to change copied and pasted contents. Why is that?

@gdh1995
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gdh1995 commented Feb 10, 2020 via email

@juharris
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Seems like it shouldn't have the permission for Chrome according to:

# Build the Chrome Store package; this does not require the clipboardWrite permission.

@lfv89
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lfv89 commented Feb 10, 2020

yeah... I'm not really comfortable with this change.

also, the notes for this release is referencing an issue instead of a pull request:

Fix an issue with the HUD preventing some link hints from being shown (#3486).

@ondras12345
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I don't see a permission change in the diff ed78c1b...master . It could be just me being blind though.

Git blame of manifest.json and Cakefile also looks ok.

Maybe a package built from a different source code made it to the Chrome Store, but I'm just guessing here.

Disclaimer: I am looking at the source code of this project for the first time. I may have just overlooked something.

@ondras12345
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also, the notes for this release is referencing an issue instead of a pull request:

Fix an issue with the HUD preventing some link hints from being shown (#3486).

The issue was closed by a commit. I don't believe it is related to the permission change.

@philc
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philc commented Feb 10, 2020

Folks, Vimium has had the clipboardRead permission since Jan 2012 (3ff0518) so I'm not sure why Chrome is prompting about it now. I believe the last time permissions were changed was in 2016 (dfbd68d).

The command "paste URL from clipboard" uses the clipboard read permission.

@philc philc closed this as completed Feb 10, 2020
@juharris
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Clipboard reading isn't so bad considering it can see all data on a webpage. It's the clipboard editing, "clipboardWrite" that's scary.

@ondras12345
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ondras12345 commented Feb 10, 2020

I just verified it on one of my computers that didn't have the new version yet:
vimium

EDIT: I didn't notice the difference at first because my other computers are not displaying the permission list in English, but as juharris pointed out, it is different.

@juharris
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So just be clear, before it said:

Read data you copy and paste

Now in version 1.65.1, it says:

"Read and modify data you copy and paste

(emphasis mine)

@philc
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philc commented Feb 10, 2020

Related: we do have clipboardWrite in manifest.json, but it gets stripped out as part of our build script for the chrome store package (see #2852) as @juharris noted, so it shouldn't be present in the Chrome store version. I verified the manifest.json as part of the chrome build omits this permission.

However, it is present in the Firefox build, because apparently we need it for yanking the current page's URL to the clipboard, but not in Chrome. See #2601.

Frustrating. I'm not sure what caused the updated permissions prompt. Chrome does have a new, beta developer portal which required me to enter an explanation for a handful of permissions we're using, so maybe this is the first time we're using some new permissions model.

@philc philc reopened this Feb 10, 2020
@philc philc changed the title why does Vimium need permissions to edit my copies and pastes since the latest release? Why does Vimium need permissions to edit my clipboard since the latest release? Feb 10, 2020
@philc
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philc commented Feb 10, 2020

The only explanation I can think of is that I mistakenly uploaded the firefox build artifact to the chrome store. The only difference is the set of permissions. I've done a version bump (1.65.2) and distributed it through the store; let's see if the permissions as displayed by Chrome reverts back to what it used to be.

@sysbot
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sysbot commented Feb 10, 2020

Thank for the updates. I've removed Vimium for now until hopefully the new version without the clipboardWrite permission is propagated to the Store.

@sysbot
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sysbot commented Feb 10, 2020

In light of this. I wonder if there's a way to verify the build and the uploaded artifacts are exactly the same?

@brc
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brc commented Feb 10, 2020

Seeing 1.65.1 in the store (uploaded today)...

image

...which still wants to modify clipboard:

image

@philc What version did you bump to? Thanks

@philc
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philc commented Feb 10, 2020

The latest version will be 1.65.2. Chrome store is still approving.

@gdh1995
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gdh1995 commented Feb 11, 2020 via email

@itsnotvalid
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Just saw vimium went to #3 of trending and also seeing the alert for requiring new permission, looks like lots of people finally have time to look at the OSS project :-)

@duraki
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duraki commented Feb 11, 2020

For anyone wondering, Vimium has been updated to 1.65.2 on Google Chrome. It now reflect the changes, and does not require special perms to modify the clipboard data. Thanks for the update @philc.

@philc
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philc commented Feb 11, 2020 via email

@philc philc closed this as completed Feb 11, 2020
@philc philc changed the title Why does Vimium need permissions to edit my clipboard since the latest release? Why does Vimium need permissions to edit my clipboard in version 1.65.1? Feb 11, 2020
@dm17
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dm17 commented Jun 15, 2020

In 1.66 it still has the permissions to read all copy/pasted passwords and such... Is this really needed for vim functionality? I don't think I'm the only one who isn't clear one this yet. @philc

@zwangz
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zwangz commented Dec 19, 2020

In 1.66 it still has the permissions to read all copy/pasted passwords and such... Is this really needed for vim functionality? I don't think I'm the only one who isn't clear one this yet. @philc

Very true. It would be great to have an option to disable yank and paste completely which I would imagine silence this alarm?

@SAABoy
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SAABoy commented Oct 4, 2023

Why does Vimium STILL ask for access to my clipboard?

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