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backus's profile
John Backus
John Backus
John Backus
@backus

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John Backus

@backus

Seeking alternative compression. Hopefully wrong on average. Shameless. Started @getcognito and @bloom

San Francisco, CA
Joined August 2012

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    Two-way (sending and receiving) short codes:

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    1. John Backus‏ @backus Jan 20

      If the user just unlocked their wallet for another tab then they are probably about to send a transaction. The attacker can detect the unlock, wait 30 seconds, then pop up their own transaction. Attached gif is an example attack when the user is in the middle of using an exchangepic.twitter.com/1FljviXydN

      3 replies 30 retweets 99 likes
      Show this thread
    2. John Backus‏ @backus Jan 20

      A lot of other small attack opportunities IMO that exist as long as web3 is injected into every page. You can tell if someone is specifically a Metamask user by checking `web3.currentProvider.isMetamask`. Why not pop up your own Metamask lookalike in the top right?pic.twitter.com/gw8drsiE3k

      1 reply 8 retweets 48 likes
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    3. John Backus‏ @backus Jan 20

      Regardless of whether the wallet is currently locked, you can use the current network id on web3 to see if the user was last using the testnet or mainnet. If they're on anything besides mainnet, they are probably a developer and likely have higher than average crypto holdings.

      1 reply 6 retweets 30 likes
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    4. John Backus‏ @backus Jan 20

      To give Metamask credit, they do have several issues on Github open discussing issues around globally available web3 instance: - https://github.com/MetaMask/metamask-extension/issues/799 … - https://github.com/MetaMask/metamask-extension/issues/12 … - https://github.com/MetaMask/metamask-extension/issues/537 … -https://github.com/MetaMask/metamask-extension/issues/714 …

      1 reply 5 retweets 40 likes
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    5. John Backus‏ @backus Jan 20

      In my opinion, the best immediate stopgap these extensions should add is something similar to other browser permissions like how we grant access to location information. I think the Metamask team is looking into doing this long term: https://github.com/MetaMask/metamask-extension/issues/813 …pic.twitter.com/AM6KUpIIoP

      1 reply 8 retweets 36 likes
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    6. John Backus‏ @backus Jan 20

      Potential short term solution: 1. Hardcode that only http://metamask.io/whitelist  can call invoke some whitelist functionality in extension 2. dApps opens popup for http://metamask.io/whitelist?url=example.com … 3. Extension asks if you want to give http://example.com  access to your wallet

      1 reply 7 retweets 42 likes
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    7. John Backus‏ @backus Jan 20

      Restricting this functionality to their domain means that nothing has to be injected into every page. Popup means any page can really easily initiate the whitelist process without having to write browser vendor specific extension interactions.

      1 reply 4 retweets 20 likes
      Show this thread
    8. John Backus‏ @backus Jan 20

      Short term solution would then be to add whitelisting as an opt-in feature (so you don't break existing integrations and make people regret writing their app to depend on Metamask). Security conscious users can opt-in right away and app developers can plan for deprecation.

      1 reply 3 retweets 20 likes
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    9. John Backus‏ @backus Jan 20

      In the meantime, I'd recommend users disable Metamask by default in their browser and then enable it when they want to use it. Unlike unlocking a wallet, I wasn't able to detect (from an already open and unfocused tab) when a disabled extension was enabled.pic.twitter.com/Tn3GCVeMuH

      4 replies 12 retweets 44 likes
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    10. George Joshua T‏ @georgety Jan 21
      Replying to @backus

      Can’t metamask have a simple switch on the extension icon to toggle it on and off without needing to go to extensions panel?

      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      John Backus‏ @backus Jan 21
      Replying to @georgety

      They could, but this is just my recommendation until there is a better solution. I think being able to opt into a whitelist is something they could roll out in Q1 or early Q2 and would be a way better solution.

      2:44 AM - 21 Jan 2018
      0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes

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