Web Category Filtering

Since the first days of the web, users and administrators have sought to control the flow of information from the Internet to the local device. There are many different ways to implement internet filters, and numerous goals that organizations may want to achieve: Today’s post explores the last of these: blocking content based on category.Continue reading “Web Category Filtering”

Browser Features: Find in Page

For busy web users, the humble Find-in-Page feature in the browser is one of the most important features available. While Google or Bing can get you to the page you’re looking for faster than ever before, once you get to that page, you’ve got to find the information you’re looking for1, and that’s where Find-in-PageContinue reading “Browser Features: Find in Page”

ERR_BLOCKED_BY_CLIENT and HTML5 Sandbox

Recently, many Microsoft employees taking training courses have reported problems accessing documents linked to in those courses in Chrome and Edge. In Edge, the screen looks like this: But the problem isn’t limited to Microsoft’s internal training platform, and can be easily reproduced in Chrome: What’s going on? There are a number of root causesContinue reading “ERR_BLOCKED_BY_CLIENT and HTML5 Sandbox”

Browser Security Bugs that Aren’t: JavaScript in PDF

A fairly common security bug report is of the form: “I can put JavaScript inside a PDF file and it runs!” For example, open this PDF file with Chrome, and you can see the alert(1) message displayed: Support for JavaScript within PDFs is by-design and expected by the developers of PDF rendering software, including commonContinue reading “Browser Security Bugs that Aren’t: JavaScript in PDF”

Browser Extensions: Powerful and Potentially Dangerous

Regular readers of my blogs know that I love browser extensions. Extensions can make using your browser more convenient, fun, and secure. Unfortunately, extensions can also break web apps in bizarre or amusing ways, dramatically slow your browser performance, leak your personal data, or compromise your device. The designers of the Chromium extension system createdContinue reading “Browser Extensions: Powerful and Potentially Dangerous”