Widget Warning, this totally sucks
updated 15 years, 11 months ago 4 Members · 4
Posts 
I hope I am not over-reacting by posting this.
There is mAsSiVe screaming and “I told you so” ranting around the Net about widgets. There apparently is a HUGE security hole in widgies and, if true, one must ask, ” What the heck was Steve Jobs thinking?”
See MacFixit and the other Mac OS watchdog sites for some honest evaluation and opinion or see slashdot for the collected wisdom of our friends the Mac-bashers.
https://it.slashdot.org/it/05/05/08/2131208.shtml?tid=172&tid=179&tid=3
Here’s the guy who started it all:
https://stephan.com/widgets/zaptastic/
bogiesan
This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: “For crying out loud, read the freakin’ manual.”
The second link you put in the post trys to download something (maybe a malicious Active X control) to your computer once you hit his web page, so beware!! thankfully I have a firewall and software that prevents websites from auto loading software in the browser. Oh well, one more reason not to upgrade to Tiger for a few more weeks.
Andy
Be sure to go into Safari’s preferences and UN-check “Open safe files” (or something like that). It’s not in the security area, but the first section, I think.
That will keep any “bad widgets” from opening themselves even if they manage to download themselves. It’s probably a good idea to un-check that even if you’re not worried about this. I prefer to open the files myself, thank you very much.
Hi,
This seems (to me) to be a more rational perspective (Link plus short excerpts):
https://www.macworld.com/weblogs/editors/2005/05/widgets/index.php
Widget security: fact and fiction“However, I worry that the article may spread a bit more concern over the dangers of widgets than there actually should be.
Why do I say that? Consider for a moment not a widget, but a regular application. Applications have the ability to do everything widgets can do
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