TeX Live future access in danger

[Nelson H. F. Beebe]

The SANS security list today carries a pointer to this story:

	Google Chrome engineers want to block some HTTP file downloads
	https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-chrome-engineers-want-to-block-some-http-file-downloads/

The story notes:

>> ...
>> According to a proposal the browser maker has put forward yesterday,
>> only the download of certain "high-risk" file types will be blocked by
>> default.
>> 
>> This includes EXE (Windows application binary), DMG (Mac application
>> binary), CRX (Chrome extension package), and all the major archive
>> formats, like ZIP, GZIP, BZIP, TAR, RAR, and 7Z.
>> ...

I personally view this as totally wrong-headed, and also easily
subverted by the creation of encrypted data streams transferred under
innocuous names.  Nevertheless, if implemented, it could be a
significant problem for Web sites with downloadable content, include
TeX Live and CTAN mirrors.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Nelson H. F. Beebe                    Tel: +1 801 581 5254                  -
- University of Utah                    FAX: +1 801 581 4148                  -
- Department of Mathematics, 110 LCB    Internet e-mail: beebe at math.utah.edu  -
- 155 S 1400 E RM 233                       beebe at acm.org  beebe at computer.org -
- Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0090, USA    URL: http://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/ -
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------