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It came, it saw, it didn't exactly conquer, but was banned and now it's fixed. That's what happened this week when a Chrome browser add-on called Downloadify exploited a flaw in the Spotify web player and allowed people to download any song streamed by Spotify.
The flaw meant that songs being streamed by the Spotify web player were not encrypted properly, and the Downloadify add-on simply exploited this fact to allow users to download songs temporarily stored in the browser cache.
Google, who manages Chrome browser add-ons, quickly took action and removed the add-on, but the open source nature of Downloadify still meant that anyone who wanted to get it still could.
So it was up to Spotify to fix the flaw, and they finally did this week.
The programmer of Downloadify says that he created the add-on purely as a way to force Spotify to fix the flaw, which he says has been there for at least "four or five months".
The flaw meant that songs being streamed by the Spotify web player were not encrypted properly, and the Downloadify add-on simply exploited this fact to allow users to download songs temporarily stored in the browser cache.
Google, who manages Chrome browser add-ons, quickly took action and removed the add-on, but the open source nature of Downloadify still meant that anyone who wanted to get it still could.
So it was up to Spotify to fix the flaw, and they finally did this week.
The programmer of Downloadify says that he created the add-on purely as a way to force Spotify to fix the flaw, which he says has been there for at least "four or five months".