USB mouse works without approval

[starius]

Qubes OS version: R3.2.

When I plugged in my USB mouse, it became usable without any approval from me. I think, it smells like a security problem. I have not tested a keyboard, but if it works in the same manner, it is even worse. A malicious USB device can pretend to be a mouse and tamper user's activity in dom0 (e.g., open Qubes VM manager or some application, reboot physical machine).

Note: if the OS requested an approval for all USB devices, there would be a chicken-and-egg problem with requesting an approval for a keyboard if there is only one keyboard and it is the USB keyboard in question. It can be solved by pre-approving some devices during the installation (explicitly asking a user to choose which devices to trust).

[andrewdavidwong]

I think enabling mouse input by default if the user opts to create a USB qube is an intentional design decision related to issue #1930. Is that right, @marmarek?

@starius, just so you know, you can edit your own policy however you see fit in /etc/qubes-rpc/policy/qubes.InputMouse.

[andrewdavidwong]

I think enabling mouse input by default if the user opts to create a USB qube is an intentional design decision related to issue #1930. Is that right, @marmarek?

@starius, just so you know, you can edit your own policy however you see fit in /etc/qubes-rpc/policy/qubes.InputMouse.

[marmarek]

On Tue, Dec 06, 2016 at 03:35:38AM -0800, Andrew David Wong wrote: I think enabling mouse input by default if the user opts to create a USB qube is an intentional design decision related to issue #1930. Is that right, @marmarek?

By default policy is set to 'ask'. I think either USB VM is not enabled at all (and device is indeed in dom0 directly), or you clicked "yes to all", which save the decision and do not ask on further occasions (about the mouse connected to sys-usb, other services or other VMs should still result in prompt dialog).

…

-- Best Regards, Marek Marczykowski-Górecki Invisible Things Lab A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?

[marmarek]

On Tue, Dec 06, 2016 at 03:35:38AM -0800, Andrew David Wong wrote: I think enabling mouse input by default if the user opts to create a USB qube is an intentional design decision related to issue #1930. Is that right, @marmarek?

By default policy is set to 'ask'. I think either USB VM is not enabled at all (and device is indeed in dom0 directly), or you clicked "yes to all", which save the decision and do not ask on further occasions (about the mouse connected to sys-usb, other services or other VMs should still result in prompt dialog).

…

-- Best Regards, Marek Marczykowski-Górecki Invisible Things Lab A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?