Microsoft Defender SmartScreen provides protection against the most common forms of attack: phishing and malware. SmartScreen support is built-in to Microsoft Edge and the Windows 8+ shell. The SmartScreen web service also powers the Microsoft Defender Browser Protection extension for Chromium-derived browsers. While SmartScreen provides powerful controls to block attacks, the user remains in fullContinue reading “Enforcing SmartScreen with Policy”
Category Archives: security
Attack Techniques: SMS Gift Card Scams
Last week, I had the chance to fly to Redmond to meet my new teammates on the Protection team in Microsoft Defender. I also had the chance to catch up with a few old friends from the Edge team, one of whom I met for coffee on Friday morning. As we sat down with ourContinue reading “Attack Techniques: SMS Gift Card Scams”
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?”
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