WebAPI/Security/Contacts

Contacts API

Brief purpose of API: Access to users contacts.

General Use Cases:N/A

Inherent threats:

• Read/exfiltrate confidential information,
• Destroy user's contact data
• DoS via filling address book with bogus data

Threat severity: High

References:

• https://wiki.mozilla.org/WebAPI/ContactsAPI
• https://groups.google.com/d/topic/mozilla.dev.webapps/hvG5PXsFyzw/discussion

Permissions Table

Type	Use Cases	Authorization Model	Notes & Other Controls
Web Content	None	No direct access (access via web activities)	App requests a contact via web activities or trusted UI API provides a local identifier instead of the actual contact information
Installed Web Apps	None	No direct access (access via web activities)	App requests a contact via web activities or trusted UI API provides a local identifier instead of the actual contact information
Privileged Web Apps	Create, read or edit contact information	Explicit	Let user configure what data is accessible (globally?) Have separate permissions for read vs read&write, assuming that many apps only want read, and could use web activities to create a contact if necessary. These distinctions should not be exposed to the user (the user should be only be asked if the API wants to "have access to" the contacts API, as it adds too much cognitive overhead to start scanning dialogs for the verb without clearly differentiating the risk to the user).
Certified Web Apps	Create, read or edit contact information	Implicit