Re: Image mode

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen]

Richard Stallman <address@hidden> writes:

>     In contrast, if someone sends me a JPEG image in an email, Gnus
>     will happily show it to me without asking (at least with the
>     settings I'm using).  So where's the protection in that case?
>
> Should we consider that a bug in Gnus?
> (I don't know what the answer is.)

Switching image display off in a mail reader is like switching it off
in a web browser.  Does Firefox query the user before displaying an
image?  "Warning!  The web page you're browsing contains an image!
Image libraries are sometimes prone to buffer overflows!  Do you
really wish to expose yourself to this danger!!1!?"

Warning users about something that's almost certainly not dangerous is
a huge security risk in itself, because you're inuring the users to
warnings.  The user will answer "Yeah, whatever" when being bothered
with these things, and then when Emacs asks the user "Are you sure you
wish to do an rm -rf?" (or whatever the genuinely dangerous thing it
is), they won't bother to read the warning. 

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
  address@hidden * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen