Emails are not safe - Re: Thoughts on the standardization of Org

[Jean Louis <bugs@gnu.support>]

* Tim Cross <theophilusx@gmail.com> [2020-11-10 00:50]:
> 
> Maxim Nikulin <manikulin@gmail.com> writes:
> 
> > 2020-11-08 Jean Louis wrote:
> >> That is right, I am using it since years in ~/.mailcap that works well
> >> for mutt email client.
> >>
> >> text/org;	emacsclient %s; nametemplate=%s.org;
> >> text/x-org;	emacsclient %s; nametemplate=%s.org;
> >
> > Just for curiosity, couldn't it lead to execution of arbitrary code
> > placed into elisp table expressions, some macro, etc.? I have not
> > convinced myself that just opening of a file (without executing of src
> > blocks) is safe enough and there no dangerous #+startup options or other
> > tricks. Emacs is too powerful and too flexible...
> 
> By default, it is pretty safe. While you can customize things in such a
> way as to expose you to additional danger, you have to explicitly do
> that.
> 
> There is a risk with many MIME types, for example images, word and excel
> documents etc. Even HTML can be a threat, especially if your mail reader
> supports JS and is not well engineered with security checks.
> 
> No email can be considered 100% safe. However, in addition to the
> possible security consequences, you also have to consider the
> likelihood. The effort it takes to craft a malicious payload needs some
> sort of reward and while that reward might be as trivial as just causing
> mayhem, the relatively small user base for org compared to other MIME
> types is unlikely to make it an attractive mechanism. You are more
> likely to choose something more popular to put your efforts into.

In general I understand your very valid points.

When using text based email reader and non-Javascript browsers to read
emails then email is practically very safe. I never encountered any
problems in last 2 decades plus 1 year. Of course there are phishing
and tracking emails and there are bugs in various software. Mostly I
have used mutt, and for some time Thunderbird. Never had any issue
with emails.

It does not mean there are none:

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-6793

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/security/advisories/mfsa2020-44/

https://www.cvedetails.com/product/3678/Mozilla-Thunderbird.html?vendor_id=452

https://www.cvedetails.com/google-search-results.php?q=mutt&sa=Search