Last time, we looked at how to troubleshoot browser crashes. However, not all browser problems result in the tab or browser crashing entirely. In some cases, the problem is that some part of the browser UI doesn’t render correctly. This most commonly occurs with parts of the UI that are written in HTML and JavaScript. InContinue reading “Troubleshooting Edge (or Chrome) Broken UI”
Category Archives: web
Protecting Auth Tokens
Authenticating to websites in browsers is complicated. There are numerous different approaches: Each of these authentication mechanisms has different user-experience effects and security properties. Sometimes, multiple systems are used at once, with, for example, a Web Forms login being bolstered by multifactor authentication. In most cases, however, Authentication mechanisms are only used to verify theContinue reading “Protecting Auth Tokens”
ServiceWorkers vs. Network Filtering
In a recent post, I explored how the design of network security features impact the tradeoffs of the system. In that post, I noted that integrating a URL check directly into the browser provides the security check with the best context, because it allows the client to see the full URL being checked and ifContinue reading “ServiceWorkers vs. Network Filtering”
Beware: URLs are Pointers to Mutable Entities
Folks often like to think of URLs as an entity that can be evaluated: “Is it harmless, or is it malicious?” In particular, vendors of security products tend to lump URLs in with other IoCs (indicators of compromise) like the hash of a known-malicious file, a malicious/compromised digital certificate, or a known-malicious IP address. Unfortunately,Continue reading “Beware: URLs are Pointers to Mutable Entities”
Security Tradeoffs: Privacy
In a recent post, I explored some of the tradeoffs engineers must make when evaluating the security properties of a given design. In this post, we explore an interesting tradeoff between Security and Privacy in the analysis of web traffic. Many different security features and products attempt to protect web browsers from malicious sites byContinue reading “Security Tradeoffs: Privacy”
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