Earlier this year, I mentioned that I load every phishing URL I’m sent to see what it does and whether it tries to use any interesting new techniques. While Edge’s “Enhanced Security Mode” reduces the risks of 0-day attacks against the browser itself, another great defense available for enterprise users is Microsoft Defender Application Guard.Continue reading “Defensive Techniques: Application Guard”
Category Archives: browsers
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?”
Auth Flows in a Partitioned World
Back in 2019, I explained how browsers’ cookie controls and privacy features present challenges for common longstanding patterns for authentication flows. Such flows often rely upon an Identity Provider (IdP) having access to its own cookies both on top-level pages served by the IdP and when the IdP receives a HTTP request from an XmlHttpRequest/fetchContinue reading “Auth Flows in a Partitioned World”
How Microsoft Edge Updates
By default, Edge will update in the background automatically while you’re not using it. Open Microsoft Edge and you’ll be using the latest version. However, if Edge is already running and an update becomes available, an update notifier icon will show in the Edge toolbar. When you see the update notifier (a green or redContinue reading “How Microsoft Edge Updates”
Improving Native Message Host Reliability on Windows
Last Update: Nov 28, 2023 Update: This change was checked into Chromium 113 before being backed out. The plan is to eventually turn it on-by-default, so extension authors really should read this post and update their extensions if needed. The feature was relanded inside Chrome Canary version 115.0.5789.0. It’s off-by-default, behind a flag on theContinue reading “Improving Native Message Host Reliability on Windows”