Comments on: Live Search Maps Gadget Mess (Updated)

By: Christopher Price

Christopher Price — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 00:11:52 +0000

Thanks for the update, glad to see Microsoft finally addressing the matter.

Basically, from what I can tell, they pulled the gadget because it calls a script remotely. This is potentially abusive because if someone were to spoof Microsoft’s server (through a DNS attack), they could run their own script in the place of Microsoft’s.

Personally, I use OpenDNS for third-party DNS protection, so I don’t feel very at-risk. This could be a security threat if Microsoft bundled those gadgets with Windows… but they’re not.

Hopefully Microsoft will take charge and share the API code, or fix things themselves.

I still feel the gadget is secure enough to offer for download, but yes, you should keep this in mind. I’m not taking it off my sidebar…

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 16:51:57 +0000

I saw this discussion of security issues at the link below as the reason for why it was pulled. Could someone comment on whether this is a real concern for this gadget or a hypothetical concern (e.g., that it is bad practice to allow gadgets to be written this way but if you trust the developer then you are ok)? I don’t understand enough about these issues to know. Thanks.

http://www.liveside.net/blogs/main/archive/2007/10/30/yes-the-live-search-and-live-search-traffic-gadgets-are-gone-security-concerns-cited.aspx

By: Pierre

Pierre — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 22:38:37 +0000

Thanks so much for explaining how my favorite gadget disappeared when I reinstalled Vista last week. I’ve got my traffic gadget back!!

By: side bar » Live Maps Sidebar Mess

side bar » Live Maps Sidebar Mess — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 04:20:24 +0000

[...] Read the rest of this great post here [...]

By: Christopher Price

Christopher Price — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 01:54:15 +0000

Correct, the .gadget encoding is lost because this was a post-install gadget that has since been re-archived.

But if you move the .gadget folder to where I said… it should show up in the available gadgets.

By: Ian Argent

Ian Argent — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 20:22:25 +0000

When I donlaod from that link it gives me a zip file with a directory named LiveSearchMaps.gadget; not a .gadget file…

By: Christopher Price

Christopher Price — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 22:12:18 +0000

Digg This: http://digg.com/microsoft/Live_Maps_Sidebar_Mess