Feature idea for core or plug-in: extension last update

peopleinside

Will be useful an extension or also function in the core that show, in the installed extension the latest update date of an extension.

This is useful to inform the admin about what extension can be abandoned and no more update since long time so can also have security issues.

Currently seems the admin has no way to check with one extension is ok because is maintained updated or not.
Order extension by updated date, see when was the last update can be useful info to see for manage extension security.

clarkwinkelmann

While this would be useful, this is not a very reliable indicator.

Many Flarum extensions are extremely simple and as such require very few changes to remain compatible and have very little risk of causing a security issue. I have many extensions that have not been updated for years, but that's mainly because they still work just fine.

Likewise, even an extension that regularly publishes updates could still be insecure if they only focus on adding new features but have poor security practices.

Since the update date cannot very reliable determine either Flarum compatibility or security expectations I'm not sure it would help that much.

peopleinside

Last update date an be an indicator, without this info is hard understand what can be old and abandoned.
The date can give an indicator, after then admin can check forum or ask help / info about that old extension.
I think will be a useful info and thinking also for example on WordPress, some security plugin do just this: alert you when an extension is old more then a year. The final decision on what to do is always left to the administrator.

While it's hard or impossible to develop a function that can say to the admin if the developer have poor security practices, it's more easy just give the info about how how much far was the last update.

This is only my point of view, looking also what happen in other platform.
A community can have many extensions, know how much they are old in update can be a very useful info, I think otherwise I think admin cannot have info about how much old extension are.

Extensions can be created and abandoned.
Maybe will be useful also add an alert if the extension has been removed from the store.

In the future maybe some security guide line should be implemented in the "extension store".