主题：【评论】这是Google惹的祸吗？ -- Highway

比方说吧，你新交的女朋友第一次去你的单身宿舍去看你。结果一进屋，就看见了你床下一堆的臭袜子，在你的书架上浏览一下，结果发现里面夹杂着什么《Penthouse》杂志以及《肉蒲团》之类的典籍。在你的床上刚小坐了几分钟，就发现枕头底下露出半截你和其他MM的信件......

如果是这样的话，那么你一定很尴尬，可能还有些恼火。抱怨她说“你眼睛也太尖了吧！”。她肯定会跳起来说“呸！这怎么会是我的错。首先你就不应该有这些东西，你没有的话，我怎么能发现。再者，如果你真的不想让人看到，你就应该锁起来或者放到什么别人找不到的地方。你就摆在那里，还怪我眼尖......（此处省略80000字）哼！”

现在Google Desktop Search软件就好比是你的那位女朋友，发现了好多本不想让人知道的东西。Well，这该怪她呢，还是该怪你呢?Here is the story-->

[SIZE=3]Desktop Google Finds Holes[/SIZE]

Google's desktop search software is so good that it exposes vulnerabilities on your computer that you didn't know about. 
 
Last month, Google released a beta version of its desktop search software: Google Desktop Search. Install it on your Windows machine, and it creates a searchable index of your data files, including word processing files, spreadsheets, presentations, e-mail messages, cached Web pages and chat sessions. It's a great idea. Windows' searching capability has always been mediocre, and Google fixes the problem nicely.

There are some security issues, though. [B]The problem is that GDS indexes and finds documents that you may prefer not be found. For example, GDS searches your browser's cache. This allows it to find old Web pages you've visited, including online banking summaries, personal messages sent from Web e-mail programs and password-protected personal Web pages.[/B]

GDS can also retrieve encrypted files. No, it doesn't break the encryption or save a copy of the key. However, it searches the Windows cache, which can bypass some encryption programs entirely. And if you install the program on a computer with multiple users, you can search documents and Web pages for all users.

Click here to read Scot Petersen's column on GDS entitled "Search Run Amok". 

[B]GDS isn't doing anything wrong; it's indexing and searching documents just as it's supposed to. The vulnerabilities are due to the design of Internet Explorer, Opera, Firefox, PGP and other programs.[/B]

[B]First[/B], Web browsers should not store SSL-encrypted pages or pages with personal e-mail. If they do store them, they should at least ask the user first.

[B]Second[/B], an encryption program that leaves copies of decrypted files in the cache is poorly designed. Those files are there whether or not GDS searches for them.

[B]Third[/B], GDS' ability to search files and Web pages of multiple users on a computer received a lot of press when it was first discovered. This is a complete nonissue. You have to be an administrator on the machine to do this, which gives you access to everyone's files anyway.

Some people blame Google for these problems and suggest, wrongly, that Google fix them. What if Google were to bow to public pressure and modify GDS to avoid showing confidential information? The underlying problems would remain: The private Web pages would still be in the browser's cache; the encryption program would still be leaving copies of the plain-text files in the operating system's cache; and the administrator could still eavesdrop on anyone's computer to which he or she has access. The only thing that would have changed is that these vulnerabilities once again would be hidden from the average computer user.

In the end, this can only harm security.

[B]GDS is very good at searching. It's so good that it exposes vulnerabilities on your computer that you didn't know about. And now that you know about them, pressure your software vendors to fix them. Don't shoot the messenger. [/B]