Google’s big security update for YouTube and Drive sharing will cause some problems

guest · Jun 24, 2021

Google’s big security update for YouTube and Drive sharing will cause some problems
June 24, 2021
https://bgr.com/tech/google-youtube-sharing-security-update-drive-workspace-5934314/

Google announced two security updates for YouTube and Google Drive that will essentially break old links that were publicly shared with others. The changes might not be immediately noticeable, and they might impact users disproportionately, so it’s not something that most Google users need to worry about.

But those people who happen to have access to lots of unlisted videos on YouTube, and plenty of files that were shared with them via Drive, should know that some of those links might stop working. Google gave users a month of notice, during which time you’ll be able to ensure that you either have access to particular YouTube clips and documents in Drive or that people you’re sharing content with can still access your links.
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The changes are simple to understand. In YouTube, any video that’s set as Unlisted is protected from search results and won’t show up in suggestions. Google made changes in 2017 to prevent others from guessing links to Unlisted videos, and the new security update addresses Unlisted video shared before then.

Unlisted videos that were uploaded before 2017 will be set to Private starting on July 23rd. Creators will be able to keep the videos as they are or fill out a form to opt out of the change.
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Google addressed the Drive changes in a post on its Google Workspace Updates blog.

The security update is supposed to make files more secure by updating their links. This might have some direct consequences on access to specific files, so Google gives Drive users until July 23rd to make changes.

While Google offers the same July 23rd deadline as YouTube, it applies differently to Drive. Until that date, Google Workspace admins will have to choose how the shared files in their organization are impacted by the new security change.
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End-users will receive email notifications starting July 26th about the impacted files.
More details about how the Drive sharing security update will impact Google Workspace users are available in a support document at this link.
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guest · Jul 29, 2021

About Google Drive's "A security update will be applied to some of your files" message
July 29, 2021
https://www.ghacks.net/2021/07/29/a...ill-be-applied-to-some-of-your-files-message/

If you have opened the Google Drive website on the Internet, you may have noticed a notification at the top of the page that informs you about a new security update that will be, or has been, applied to some files on Google Drive. You may have also been informed via email about the upcoming changes.

The update is applied automatically to FamilyLink accounts according to Google; a notification is not provided for the account type.
The message reveals that the security update will be applied on September 13, 2021 to "some files". The "see files" link displays all affected files in a table. It lists the filename, last modification date, whether the security update has been applied, and an option to remove the update.
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If the link gets leaked on the Internet or is guessed, files can be accessed. Guessing may be more or less difficult, depending on the method used to generate the "random" part of the link.

New links on Google Drive use the resource key parameter to decrease the chance of discovering publicly shared links on Google Drive.

A new share URL looks like this: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2WS17qmp9--TGJZdVBjUGEyeFk/view?usp=sharing&resourcekey=0-PTJvLuPSW18qiCvIGgbL8Q
Previously, share URLs looked like this:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2WS17qmp9--TGJZdVBjUGEyeFk/
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YouTube as well
Google made a similar change on its YouTube video service that affects unlisted videos. Unlisted videos are publicly available and use a similar obfuscation technology to prevent guessing of video links.

All unlisted videos on YouTube that were uploaded before January 1, 2017, were set to private by Google unless content creators opted out of the change. Videos uploaded after January 1, 2017 are not affected because the sharing method was changed on YouTube at the time.
Closing Words
Files shared publicly using Google Drive should still be considered publicly accessible, as they are still only obfuscated through the link. The new resourcekey parameter makes it much more difficult to guess links though.
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Google’s big security update for YouTube and Drive sharing will cause some problems

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