Yesterday, Opera announced a new feature for Opera10, called Opera Unite. You can read about this system at http://unite.opera.com.

Essentially, with Opera 10, the browser will include a basic embedded web server. This server will allow users to share files and photos, post basic web sites (PHP and other dynamic content are not supported). In addition, developers can create applications that will allow users to connect their computers together in a wide variety of ways, from peer-to-peer messaging to remote file retrieval, and much more.

Note, most of the technology I have just mentioned is possible today through the installation of various software applications, although many of these ideas are considered a bad idea (running a web server is not allowed by most ISPs on home accounts, peer to peer instant messaging is a HUGE security and privacy risk, integrated web servers present an opportunity for DOS and DOR attacks that on traditional platforms are simply not possible, etc.).

One of the extension applications imagined by one of the developers (in a post here: Taking the Web into our own hands, one computer at a time) is a shared Jukebox, where each connected user selects a playlist, and all of the playlists are combined and played back for all of the users. RIAA is probably writing the C&D letters now, and the application doesn't even exist.

Don't get me wrong - some of the features sound like good ideas to me, such as the ability to download files from your computer from anywhere through a secured network socket, and the ability to share bookmarks between every computer you use.

So, basically, I am posting this to get all of your thoughts on this technology. Do you think the availability of full scale, extensible peer-to-peer communication is worth the risk? Do you envision any great new uses for such a technology?

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I think it's not earth-shattering, but still very useful. Those who read WPW probably already know how to share large files with reasonable security, and have server space to do it. Unite would be good, however, when you want to transfer a large file without storing it on a server, or good if you're not privy to server space or otherwise restricted. I personally do not view it as a public server or public file-sharing solution. My own use of it would be restricted to more private transfers between who I choose or even just myself at different computers.
I also think that Operas' killer feature is the voice/speak add-on and Unite doesn't trump that for me.

I think it is a great innovation that is good for the democratic nature of the web. Some quotes from the article in your second link that I liked:

1. With Opera Unite, we are giving developers a chance to develop applications (known as Opera Unite services) that directly link people’s personal computers together, so that you can connect with one or more of your friends at the same time. It all happens through the browser, so no additional software has to be downloaded, and it will work wherever Opera works (Windows, Mac, Linux, and later mobile phones and other devices). Opera provides the platform and you provide the applications—what you create is limited only by your imagination.
2. The key to Opera Unite is that it enables a whole new class of social software on the Web, applications that benefit from two or more people being online at the same time. And, with Opera Unite, these people can all connect directly without needing middlemen who control third-party servers.
3. Currently, most of us contribute content to the Web (for example by putting our personal information on social networking sites, uploading photos to Flickr, or maybe publishing blog posts), but we don’t contribute to its fabric — the underlying infrastructure that defines the online landscape that we inhabit.
4. Our computers are only dumb terminals connected to other computers (meaning servers) owned by other people — such as large corporations — who we depend upon to host our words, thoughts, and images. We depend on them to do it well and with our best interests at heart. We place our trust in these third parties, and we hope for the best, but as long as our own computers are not first class citizens on the Web, we are merely tenants, and hosting companies are the landlords of the Internet.
5. We are connected to a Web that has democratized much and is an amazing source of information. However, “the wisdom of the crowd,” along with the notion that our data ought to live on other people’s computers that we don’t control, has contributed to making the Internet more impersonal, anonymous, fragmented, and more about “the aggregate” than the individual. In fact, quite the opposite of the original promise.
   

My boldings.
Note the comment made by http://my.opera.com/cshmuch/about/

You can use XMLHttpRequest in your own service's code, and then call xhr.open("GET", "http://your.local.domain" + e.connection.request.uri, false); // it will work =)

Source: http://unite.opera.com/service/192/

Related WPW thread: Web browsers converging to net operating systems?

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A related site: Opera Unite HowTo's - Opera Unite HowTo's

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An answer: Opera CEO Defends Unite Against Security Concerns - Business Center - PC World

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Wow...


Does he even know what the security concerns are here? Its not that "hey, a new place to steal data from" - its that thousands of computers will now be accepting unsolicited incoming connections that could potentially allow attackers to hijack those workstations and add them to botnets.


With Unite, when vulnerabilities are found, attackers will only have to start scanning the residential/home user address space looking for computers using Unite, then launch automated attacks to exploit those vulnerabilities and take control of the computers. A distributed system IS EXACTLY WHAT ATTACKERS WANT.

Now, there is a possibility that Unite may be very secure. However, this system, and Opera overall, has not come under a serious attack yet. By avoiding even commenting on this possible attack scenario, brushing it off by saying that some other attack, which isn't a concern in this scenario, is not possible, does not fill me with confidence that Opera is really taking the potential security implications of this type of setup seriously.

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Note this post by Brett Tabke, the admin of WMW:

"> if you run a site from your own machine.

It is *not* just like p2p. It is a proxy cache. Opera's proxy cache, keeps a copy of the object until it is replaced or updated on your machine. Your machine only fesses up one copy of it to the proxy cache. Everyone else pulls from the cached copy. Thus, it is not a true "web server". You could serve a picture a million times off your feed, and all you do is send one copy to the proxy cache server. This is *really* what Opera Turbo was testing in the beta tests (the proxy caching mechs).
It has been 12hours since the feature was introduced. Has mozilla ripped it off yet?

> any developers

You think? Just look at the huge numbers opera has attracted to it's widgets: http://widgets.opera.com . that is an awesome developer base".

Source: Opera about to "reinvent the web"

Additional information - search

opera unite site:webmasterworld.com

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To be clear, Unite is a web server, operating unencrypted on your computer, with third party addons. Opera on their FAQ describes Unite as an easier-to-configure alternative to installing Apache and using a DDNS service. The connections are in most cases standard HTTP connections, and Unite can be accessed directly with any modern web browser.

The quoted post is not accurate in describing how Unite works. Nothing is stored in a caching proxy, and all communication is done in a peer-to-peer form. There is one exception here - if your network has a strong firewall, and Unite simply can not get access to receive connections, it will connect to an Opera proxy server to receive connections. This is intended to guarantee that only the strictest of firewall configurations should allow network administrators to be able to prevent Unite from allowing remote connections into secured networks. Currently, the only known way to prevent Unite from running at the administrative level appears to be specifically blocking outgoing access to all MyOpera servers.

Let me give an example of an attack. In the past, flaws have been found in various media players that allowed viruses to be injected into media files, which would infect the computer when the file was played back. Unite provides a mechanism by which media files can be sent directly to the computer and played automatically. Through this widget, an infected file could be sent directly to the target computer and executed, resulting in a possible automatic infection. In the case of a zero-day exploit, Unite could become a new means of distributing malicious code to a large base of completely unprotected computers.

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That is why I say to young people. Downloading music through LimeWire or other file sharing programs is asking for an infection.

I will be very surprised if the programmers at Opera don't know about that. I will also be very surprised if Opera Unite, in your own words, become a new means of distributing malicious code to a large base of completely unprotected computers.

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