Adobe AIR Data Privacy and Security
Resources and more information

H. Paul Robertson

360|Flex Indianapolis
May 20, 2009

Introduction

• Paul Robertson's web site (slides and sample code will be posted here soon after the conference)
• "Maintaining security with Adobe AIR" by Ethan Malasky and Peleus Uhley (Adobe MAX 2008)

Background

• "AIR security" (Adobe AIR documentation)
• "Why Adobe AIR Doesn't (Yet) Include the Feature You Most Want" by Oliver Goldman
• "Understanding the Flash Player Security Model" by Deneb Meketa (Adobe MAX 2008)
• "Considerations for using encryption with a database" (Adobe AIR documentation)
• "Using digital rights management" (Adobe AIR documentation)
• Operating system security (user and "admin" rights)
  • "What are Adminstrative Rights, Anyway?" by Oliver Goldman
  • "Does Installing an AIR Application Require Admin Rights?" by Oliver Goldman
• Source code visibility
  • Action Script Viewer (ASV)
  • "Ethical SWF Decompiling" by Lee Brimelow
  • Nitro-LM
• Encryption: ActionScript crypto libraries:
  • as3crypto
  • OpenSSL (partially) cross-compiled to ActionScript using Alchemy

AIR application installation

• Sign your app with a trusted cert
  • "Code Signing in Adobe AIR" by Oliver Goldman
  • "Digitally signing Adobe AIR applications" by Todd Prekaski
  • Promotion: get a free signing certificate (while supplies last) by submitting your app to the Adobe AIR marketplace
• Plan for updates
  • "Building AIR applications that can be easily updated" by David Deraedt
  • "Using the Adobe AIR update framework" Quick Start article by Jeff Swartz (Adobe AIR documentation)

Modular applications

• Sandbox bridge
  • "Scripting between content in different domains" (Adobe AIR documentation)
• XML signature validation
  • "Creating and validating XML signatures" by Joe Ward
  • "Using the XML signature validation classes" (Adobe AIR documentation)
  • "flash.security package" reference (Adobe AIR documentation)

Local shared objects

[No links]

Encrypted Local Store

• "Storing encrypted data" (Adobe AIR documentation)
• "EncryptedLocalStore class" reference (Adobe AIR documentation)

Local files

[No links]

Local SQL database (SQLite)

• SQL injection attack
  • "Using parameters in statements" (Adobe AIR documentation)
  • "SQLStatement.parameters property" reference (Adobe AIR documentation)
• Encrypted database
  • "Using encryption with SQL databases" (Adobe AIR documentation)
  • "Using the EncryptionKeyGenerator class to obtain a secure encryption key" (Adobe AIR documentation)
  • as3corelib project (includes the EncryptionKeyGenerator class and hashing algorithms