MoarTLS: Non-Secure Download Blocking

With little fanfare, an important security change has arrived on the web. Now, all major browsers (except Safari) block non-secure downloads from a secure page. Browser Version Behavior Edge 94+ Block with right-click “Keep” button Chrome 94 Block Silently Firefox 93 Block with “Allow download” button Brave 1.30.89 Block Silently Opera 79.0.4143.72 Block Silently SafariContinue reading “MoarTLS: Non-Secure Download Blocking”

Practical Time Machines

Many “emergency” situations in our modern world would’ve been easy to fix had they been foreseen in advance. If only we’d known what was going to happen, the badness could’ve easily been prevented. Unfortunately, when problems are discovered only “as they happen” in production, everyone must race to minimize the damage and put out theContinue reading “Practical Time Machines”

Determining OS Platform Version

In general, you should not care what Operating System visitors are using to visit your website. If you attempt to be clever, you will often get it wrong and cause problems that are an annoyance for users and a hassle for me to debug. So avoid trying to be nosy/clever if at all possible. ThatContinue reading “Determining OS Platform Version”

Specifying Per-Site Policy with Chromium’s URL Filter Format

Chromium-based browsers like Microsoft Edge make very limited use of Windows Security Zones. Instead, most permissions and features that offer administrators per-site configuration via policy rely on lists of rules in the URL Filter Format. Filters are expressed in a syntax (Chrome Doc, Edge Doc) that is similar to other types of globbing rules, butContinue reading “Specifying Per-Site Policy with Chromium’s URL Filter Format”

window.close() Restrictions

Sometimes, Web Developers are surprised to find that the window.close() API doesn’t always close the browser window. When looking at the Developer Tools console, they’ll see a message like: Scripts may close only the windows that were opened by them. Why Do Browsers Limit close()? Before we dive into what factors govern what happens whenContinue reading “window.close() Restrictions”