Automatic updates - what is 'adequate' security?
There are a few questions ([C#][1], [Java][2]) that cover how one might implement automatic updates.  It appears initially easy to provide automatic updates, and there are seemingly no good reasons not to provide automatic updates for most software.

However, none appear to cover the security aspects of automatic updates.

  - How safe are automatic updates now?
  - How safe should they be?
  - How safe can they be?

My main issue is that the internet is, for all intents and purposes, a wild west where one cannot assume anything about any data they receive.  Automatic updates over the internet appears inherently risky.

A company computer gets infected, spoofs the DNS (only a small percentage of which win), and makes the other company computers believe that the update server for a common application is elsewhere, they download the 'new' application and become infected.

**As a developer, what possible attacks are there, and what steps should I take to protect my customers from abuse?**

-Adam


  [1]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/205830/c-windows-automatic-software-updates
  [2]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/305461/automatic-updates-of-java-desktop-application
Automatic updates - what is 'adequate' security?
===

There are a few questions ([C#][1], [Java][2]) that cover how one might implement automatic updates.  It appears initially easy to provide automatic updates, and there are seemingly no good reasons not to provide automatic updates for most software.

However, none appear to cover the security aspects of automatic updates.

  - How safe are automatic updates now?
  - How safe should they be?
  - How safe can they be?

My main issue is that the internet is, for all intents and purposes, a wild west where one cannot assume anything about any data they receive.  Automatic updates over the internet appears inherently risky.

A company computer gets infected, spoofs the DNS (only a small percentage of which win), and makes the other company computers believe that the update server for a common application is elsewhere, they download the 'new' application and become infected.

**As a developer, what possible attacks are there, and what steps should I take to protect my customers from abuse?**

-Adam


  [1]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/205830/c-windows-automatic-software-updates
  [2]: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/305461/automatic-updates-of-java-desktop-application