Saturday, May 18, 2013

Windows Store Apps Security?

On a The Tablet Show podcast somebody mentioned that Windows Store apps on Windows 8 / RT are not completely protected, and it is possible to access and hack app's files. That is not surprising since after all they are just files (if they are just files, and apparently they are), and the user is (can be) admin.

A quick search finds the details...
How to Access Metro Style Apps Installation Folder in Windows 8
\Program Files\WindowsApps

Why is this a problem?
Because it is easy to turn a trail to a full app, or to remove adds, or to hack apps.
NEVER save any server access code or password to an app, in particular not well encrypted.
This similar to "rooting" a mobile phone or a tablet.

Let's hope that Microsoft will do a better job protecting the apps on Windows 8.1. Keeping "mobile" OS separate from "desktop" would be better. If Microsoft has created WinRT as a virtual machine on "Windows 8 Desktop", upgrade from Windows 7 would be trivial decision (no big changes), and all "goodness" of WinRT Apps would still be there on every desktop... Anyway...

There is a reason why iOS is separate from OS X...

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