The developers of the toolkit for building self-contained Flatpak packages have announced the allocation of 508,000 euros by the STF (Sovereign Tech Fund) to fund the development and advancement of the project until the end of 2027. The funds are planned to be used to eliminate platform limitations and create new XDG portals for secure access to external resources from an isolated environment. Among the new features planned for implementation are:
- A mechanism for separating access to sockets, adding rules in WirePlumber to manage device access, and creating an XDG portal for configuring access rights for sound. The developed functionality will divide authority for recording and playback of sound, allowing access to speakers without access to the microphone.
- A granular application network isolation system from the host environment, allowing control of access at the network port level and the use of abstractions like host, local network, and global network.
- XDG portal for VPN, allowing third-party VPN applications to manage network connections at the system level.
- XDG portal for spell checking, enabling the use of a common dictionary across all applications in the system, including programs running in isolated environments.
- XDG portal for automatic password filling, addressing issues with the insecure use of the NativeMessaging service.
- A system that allows applications to declare the need for access to certain portals (for instance, a program may require access to an external screen reader) to simplify project reviews in application catalogs.
- An abstract system for declaring services provided by applications.
- Porting portals to the libdex library, adding integration tests, and improving permission request dialogues.
Source: opennet.ru
