Re:Is there a maximum size for Windows clipboard data?
by ryandrake on Wednesday June 08, 2022 @12:01PM
(#31669360)
I haven't been keeping up with the Windows world. Does Microsoft provide any safeguards or tools for the user to limit access to the clipboard? The clipboard was introduced in the good ol' days when you could basically trust the applications running on your computer. Nowadays, third party (and for those of us more paranoid) first party apps need to be considered attackers. The clipboard is a juicy target that often contains sensitive data I'm sure most apps would like to gobble up and exfiltrate. I know iOS and Android both are starting to introduce restrictions on mobile apps' use of the clipboard. Has this made it into the Windows desktop world?
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Re:Is there a maximum size for Windows clipboard data?
by pjc50 on Wednesday June 08, 2022 @12:19PM
(#31669653)
The rules are completely different if you're running "appstore" apps, which actually have some kind of sandbox.
If it's a regular win32 app, then it has access to all your filesystem (except UAC bits), can read and post keystrokes to other windows, and indeed can just straight up inject code into other processes.
Re:Is there a maximum size for Windows clipboard data?
by Melatonic on Wednesday June 08, 2022 @12:50PM
(#31670157)
Not true anymore - there are process isolation modes you can enable in Windows 10 as well as kernel isolation where it runs core processes in a VM essentially. And there is also protected folder access.
Re:Is there a maximum size for Windows clipboard data?
by MrLeap on Wednesday June 08, 2022 @11:27PM
(#31677273)
I've been wondering about this -- I'm making a text editor RPG, and in the medium term I want to make a file picker that builds a procedural dungeon based on your file system. I know such a thing would have been trivially fine in older versions of windows, but I didn't know if going down that road has any foot guns a more educated win developer would know.
Is protected folder access an on-by-default thing, or is it only certain folders?
Quick googling makes me think my plan might trigger windows defender for an exemption request. Hm That's a drag, but understandable I suppose?
Re:Is there a maximum size for Windows clipboard data?
by smileybarry on Thursday June 09, 2022 @06:34AM
(#31679557)
You'd trigger Windows Defender's "Controlled Folder Access" only if the user has it on (it's still off by default IIRC due to many, many false positives) and only for write operations. By iterating every file you may trigger its "this might be ransomware" flag but you'll only be stopped when you try to write to a protected folder. (Which is only Documents, Pictures & Videos by default)
But honestly, I've had to whitelist Microsoft's own Windows utilities from CFA in its earlier days, so don't fret about it.
Re:Is there a maximum size for Windows clipboard data?
by MrLeap on Friday June 10, 2022 @10:23PM
(#31701403)
Thank you. I'm deliberately going to be readonly (and most likely only filenames unless the user requests contents) When I'm walking around the filesystem.
Thank you for the info.