ericlaw

Kilimanjaro – Gear

This is the second post in my Kilimanjaro series. The index is here. When I was initially thinking about signing up for a trek up Kilimanjaro, I had two major areas to think about: my fitness, and all of the stuff I’d need for the trip. I knew that even if I didn’t ultimately takeContinue reading “Kilimanjaro – Gear”

Kilimanjaro – Overview

Writing about my Kilimanjaro trek will not be easy: How can I do justice in describing what was: … all at the same time? Nevertheless, I’ve been back for a few weeks now and I’m compelled to put fingers to keyboard before life keeps moving on and memories fade. First, Some Context At 19341 feet,Continue reading “Kilimanjaro – Overview”

Browser SSO / Automatic Signin

Last Update: 8 March 2024 Over the years, I’ve written a bunch about authentication in browsers, and today I aim to shed some light on another authentication feature that is not super-well understood: Browser SSO. Recently, a user expressed surprise that after using the browser’s “Clear browsing data” option to delete everything, when they revisitedContinue reading “Browser SSO / Automatic Signin”

Improving the Microsoft Defender Browser Protection Extension

Earlier this year, I wrote about various extensions available to bolster your browser’s defenses against malicious sites. Today, let’s look at another such extension: the Microsoft Defender Browser Protection extension. I first helped out with extension back in 2018 when I was an engineer on the Chrome Security team, and this spring, I was taskedContinue reading “Improving the Microsoft Defender Browser Protection Extension”

How do Random Credentials Mysteriously Appear?

One commonly-reported issue to browsers’ security teams sounds like: “Some random person’s passwords started appearing in my browser password manager?!? This must be a security bug of some sort!” This issue has been reported dozens of times, and it’s a reflection of a perhaps-surprising behavior of browser login and sync. So, what’s happening? Background EvenContinue reading “How do Random Credentials Mysteriously Appear?”