In the IE8 era, I had a brief stint as an architect on the IE team, trying to figure out a coherent strategy and a deployable set of technologies that would allow web developers to build offline-capable web applications. A few of those ideas turned into features, several turned into unimplemented patents, and a fewContinue reading “Going Offline with ServiceWorker”
Category Archives: browsers
Google Chrome–Two(ish) Years In
My first year (2016) on Chrome was both exciting and challenging. Beyond the expected firehose of new things to learn, and foreseen challenges (a second son!), there were unforeseen challenges, like working as a SWE instead of a Developer Advocate, and a long illness. Overall, my second year (2017) on Chrome was a bit smoother– IContinue reading “Google Chrome–Two(ish) Years In”
SSLVersionMin Policy returns to Chrome 66
Chrome 66, releasing to stable this week, again supports the SSLVersionMin policy that enables administrators to control the minimum version of TLS that Chrome is willing to negotiate with a server. If this policy is in effect and configured to permit, say, only TLS/1.2+ connections, attempting to connect to a site that only supports TLS/1.0Continue reading “SSLVersionMin Policy returns to Chrome 66”
HSTS Preload and Subdomains
In order to be eligible for the HSTS Preload list, your site must usually serve a Strict-Transport-Security header with an includeSubdomains directive. Unfortunately, some sites do not follow the best practices recommended and instead just set a one-year preload header with includeSubdomains and then immediately request addition to the HSTS Preload list. The result is thatContinue reading “HSTS Preload and Subdomains”
Content-Types Matter More Than You Think
Every non-empty response from a web server should contain a Content-Type response header that declares the type of content contained in the response. This declaration helps the browser understand how to process the response and can help prevent a number of serious security vulnerabilities. Setting this header properly is more important than ever. The Old DaysContinue reading “Content-Types Matter More Than You Think”
Taking Off Your NameTag
Recently, there’s been some excitement over the discovery that some sites are (ab)using browser password managers to identify users even when they’re not logged in. This technique (I call it the “NameTag vulnerability”) isn’t new or novel, but the research showing that it’s broadly being used “in the wild” is certainly interesting1, and may motivateContinue reading “Taking Off Your NameTag”
Google Internet Authority G3
For some time now, operating behind the scenes and going mostly unnoticed, Google has been changing the infrastructure used to provide HTTPS certificates for its sites and services. You’ll note that I said mostly. Over the last few months, I’ve periodically encountered complaints from users who try to load a Google site and get an unexpectedContinue reading “Google Internet Authority G3”
Chrome Field Trials
Back in April, we announced: Beginning in October 2017, Chrome will show the “Not secure” warning in two additional situations: when users enter data on an HTTP page, and on all HTTP pages visited in Incognito mode. This is true, but it’s perhaps a little misleading, based on some of the tweets we’ve seen: What isn’t mentioned inContinue reading “Chrome Field Trials”
Stealing your own password is not a vulnerability
By far, the most commonly-reported “vulnerability” reported to the Chrome Vulnerability Rewards program boils down to “I can steal my own password.” Despite having its very own FAQ entry, this gets reported to the VRP at varying levels of breathlessness, sometimes multiple times per day. You can see this “attack” in action: Yes, it’s true,Continue reading “Stealing your own password is not a vulnerability”
Chrome 59 on Mac and TeletexString Fields
Update: This change ended up getting backed out, after it was discovered that it impacted smartcard authentication. Thanks for self-hosting Chrome Dev builds, IT teams! A change quietly went into Chrome 59 that may impact your certificates if they contain non-ASCII characters in a TeletexString field. Specifically, these certificates will fail to validate on Mac, resulting inContinue reading “Chrome 59 on Mac and TeletexString Fields”
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