Author Archives: ericlaw

Debugging Chromium

A customer recently complained that after changing the Windows Security Zone Zone configuration to Disable launching apps and unsafe files: … trying to right-click and “Save As” on a Text file loaded in Chrome fails in a weird way. Specifically, Chrome’s download manager claims it saved the file (with an incorrect “size” that’s actually theContinue reading “Debugging Chromium”

Authenticode in 2025 – Azure Trusted Signing

I’ve written about signing your code using Authenticode a lot over the years, from a post in 2015 about my first hardware token to a 2024 post about signing using a Digicert HSM. Recently, Azure opened their Trusted Signing Service preview program up for individual users and I decided to try it out. The documentationContinue reading “Authenticode in 2025 – Azure Trusted Signing”

Guidelines for Secure Filename Display

Many years ago, I wrote the first drafts of Chromium’s Guidelines for Secure URL Display. These guidelines were designed to help feature teams avoid security bugs whereby a user might misinterpret a URL when making a security decision. From a security standpoint, URLs are tricky because they consist of a mix of security-critical information (theContinue reading “Guidelines for Secure Filename Display”

Attack Techniques: “I Already Hacked You” Scams

Scammers often try to convince you that you’ve already been hacked and you must contact them or send them money to prevent something worse from happening. I write about these a bunch: Another common “Bad thing already happened” scam is to send the user an email telling them that their devices were hacked some timeContinue reading “Attack Techniques: “I Already Hacked You” Scams”