News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Tell HN: Dropbox now requires access to contacts for Goog... by tinus_hn on Friday January 15, 2021 @08:35AM (#25790753)
Although it’ll never happen a cool idea would be to serve trap addresses and phone numbers so the developer can receive an instant ban if spam ends up on these addresses
Re:Tell HN: Dropbox now requires access to contacts for Goog... by ceejayoz on Friday January 15, 2021 @08:59AM (#25790982)
This would, of course, be immediately abused to ban competitors' apps.
Re:Tell HN: Dropbox now requires access to contacts for Goog... by wlesieutre on Friday January 15, 2021 @09:19AM (#25791199)
You would serve a different trap address to each app, nobody but Dropbox would have the Dropbox trap.
Re:Tell HN: Dropbox now requires access to contacts for Goog... by ceejayoz on Friday January 15, 2021 @09:22AM (#25791224)
Nobody but Dropbox and anyone with the Dropbox app on their phone. It has to get from the user's phone to Dropbox, which means it's on the user's phone at some point, barring some sort of convoluted user --> Apple --> Dropbox transfer scheme.
Re:Tell HN: Dropbox now requires access to contacts for Goog... by wlesieutre on Friday January 15, 2021 @09:29AM (#25791295)
Right, the Dropbox app on their phone is asking the OS for contact info, which the phone generates and provides to the Dropbox app and only the Dropbox app. Any other app would get a different fake address.

Or are you talking about the scenario where competitor apps use some kind of sandbox escape to jump out and steal other apps' trap addresses from the OS?

Re:Tell HN: Dropbox now requires access to contacts for Goog... by sobani on Saturday January 16, 2021 @05:33AM (#25801399)
I figure that's what @ceejayoz is talking about. This probably won't happen between 'mom and pop' apps, but maybe a failing SV unicorn might become desperate enough to pay $1MM, or however much a blackhat will ask for this service, to trash their main competitor.
Re:Tell HN: Dropbox now requires access to contacts for Goog... by rendall on Friday January 15, 2021 @09:31AM (#25791332)
Each user has their own trap email for each application. The ban would happen for that user only
Re:Tell HN: Dropbox now requires access to contacts for Goog... by dhimes on Friday January 15, 2021 @09:13AM (#25791123)
This is an awesome idea.