4 ms·

You can't allow for bytes to sit around on disk in case of crash. Maybe they could encrypt with a key kept in memory? That'd still allow detection of use thoug

by foota 7y ago

You can't allow for bytes to sit around on disk in case of crash. Maybe they could encrypt with a key kept in memory? That'd still allow detection of use though.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
samtheprogram 7y ago
Why not just use a temporary file system like /tmp? EDIT: I suppose these are often backed by memory anyway, so not sure if this would solve the problem, but interested in hearing arguments around it nonetheless.
- TylerE 7y ago
  Because there is zero guarantee /tmp gets cleared regularly, if ever.
  - tylergetsay 7y ago
    Firefox will cache videos from sites like YouTube in /tmp last I checked.
  - stronglikedan 7y ago
    But that onus is on the OS, not the browser.
    - TylerE 7y ago
      Exactly? The browser shouldn't depend on the OS to DTRT.
oconnor663 7y ago
You could encrypt both the regular one and the incognito one, with the only difference being that you persist the key for the regular one.
Rapzid 7y ago
On the surface this sounds like a good approach. The overhead of encryption should be very consistent and get buried in general file-system latency.
sgentle 7y ago
I wonder if the privacy threat model includes being able to prove that you used incognito mode at all, when, or how much. I can imagine all sorts of leaks in that regard (how many incognito disk files were created, size/ctime/mtime, system logging, indexes etc). None of these would require physical access to the machine at the time of incognito browsing, just subsequently. Might seem like an incidental concern, but being able to vacuum up a pattern of incognito sessions from a seized laptop (at a border crossing, say) and correlate it with the activity of an online pseudonym could be pretty useful.
Reason077 7y ago
> "You can't allow for bytes to sit around on disk in case of crash." Just check periodically (at startup?) for orphaned temporary storage data. I'm sure there are other parts of the browser that need to do this sort of thing anyway - expired cache data, for example.
- foota 7y ago
  Sure, but those are a different use case.

by foota 7y ago

You can't allow for bytes to sit around on disk in case of crash. Maybe they could encrypt with a key kept in memory? That'd still allow detection of use though.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

samtheprogram 7y ago

Why not just use a temporary file system like /tmp? EDIT: I suppose these are often backed by memory anyway, so not sure if this would solve the problem, but interested in hearing arguments around it nonetheless.

TylerE 7y ago
Because there is zero guarantee /tmp gets cleared regularly, if ever.
- tylergetsay 7y ago
  Firefox will cache videos from sites like YouTube in /tmp last I checked.
- stronglikedan 7y ago
  But that onus is on the OS, not the browser.
  - TylerE 7y ago
    Exactly? The browser shouldn't depend on the OS to DTRT.

oconnor663 7y ago

You could encrypt both the regular one and the incognito one, with the only difference being that you persist the key for the regular one.

Rapzid 7y ago

On the surface this sounds like a good approach. The overhead of encryption should be very consistent and get buried in general file-system latency.

sgentle 7y ago

I wonder if the privacy threat model includes being able to prove that you used incognito mode at all, when, or how much. I can imagine all sorts of leaks in that regard (how many incognito disk files were created, size/ctime/mtime, system logging, indexes etc). None of these would require physical access to the machine at the time of incognito browsing, just subsequently. Might seem like an incidental concern, but being able to vacuum up a pattern of incognito sessions from a seized laptop (at a border crossing, say) and correlate it with the activity of an online pseudonym could be pretty useful.

Reason077 7y ago

> "You can't allow for bytes to sit around on disk in case of crash." Just check periodically (at startup?) for orphaned temporary storage data. I'm sure there are other parts of the browser that need to do this sort of thing anyway - expired cache data, for example.

foota 7y ago
Sure, but those are a different use case.