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Ask HN: How do you set up a virtual browser

5 points by appleflaxen 6y ago

When you need to do something on your computer that might be risky (like run a suspect executable) you can use a VM and feel comfortable safe in your ability to isolate it. But how do you isolate your browser? There are so many cookies and identity bits in it that I want a bare-bones profile. It would be similar to the chrome-new command that someone posted previously, but it would let me pack in the non-identity parts of my experience: - don't offer to save any passwords - prompt for location on every download - use the following ten search shortcuts and maybe install an ad blocker (contains identiny information, but not much). Is this possible short of using something like chrome-driver? Like can I create a temp profile, then a bash script to copy it to a new location every time I run the browser and use the blank copy? Thanks in advance for any insight you might have.

nickphx 6y ago
Check out browsergap https://github.com/dosyago/BrowserFace https://github.com/dosyago/BrowserFace
gen3 6y ago
Firefox has a bunch of setting like deleting cookies and history on close that can be configured. I find that hard to use as a daily driver. For me, Firefox containers and uBlock origin works well enough. If you do want to do some auto config thing, I think it’s possible. Owasp ZAP has a button that auto configs a session with a whole bunch of features changed. It might be worth looking into how they do that. There is command line flags.
hotdox 6y ago
I use next script. It creates temporarily dir for firefox, uses it as a profile dir and remove after firefox closed. #!/bin/sh -e DIR="${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}" mkdir -p -- "$DIR" TEMP="$(mktemp -d -- "$DIR/firefox-XXXXXX")" trap "rm -rf -- '$TEMP'" INT TERM EXIT wget 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pyllyukko/user.js/master/user.js' -O "$TEMP/user.js" firefox -profile "$TEMP" -no-remote "$@" It also uses very hardened options from https://github.com/pyllyukko/user.js https://github.com/pyllyukko/user.js It is not my invention, but I lost a link to blog post
- hotdox 6y ago
  Another alternative would be https://www.torproject.org/download/ https://www.torproject.org/download/
- appleflaxen 6y ago
  this is awesome; thank you.
yamrzou 6y ago
If security is your concern, you can run the browser inside a container: https://github.com/ConSol/docker-headless-vnc-container https://github.com/ConSol/docker-headless-vnc-container You can also use: https://browsergap.dosyago.com/ https://browsergap.dosyago.com/ There is also: https://firejail.wordpress.com/ https://firejail.wordpress.com/
gitgud 6y ago
Is there a problem with "Incognito Mode"? Modern browsers (Chromium and Firefox) are pretty well isolated as far as sand-boxing goes (compared to 15 years ago anyway). But if you really want to avoid advanced finger-printing and tracking, then you really need to use a VPN or TOR. As sites can track your IP, OS, Browser, screen dimensions... etc
- appleflaxen 6y ago
  thanks for mentioning this. i don't really trust google on incognito mode. G will hide my identity from others, but it knows all my surfing habits, including anywhere I go with incognito.

5 points by appleflaxen 6y ago

nickphx 6y ago

Check out browsergap https://github.com/dosyago/BrowserFace https://github.com/dosyago/BrowserFace

gen3 6y ago

Firefox has a bunch of setting like deleting cookies and history on close that can be configured. I find that hard to use as a daily driver. For me, Firefox containers and uBlock origin works well enough. If you do want to do some auto config thing, I think it’s possible. Owasp ZAP has a button that auto configs a session with a whole bunch of features changed. It might be worth looking into how they do that. There is command line flags.

hotdox 6y ago

I use next script. It creates temporarily dir for firefox, uses it as a profile dir and remove after firefox closed. #!/bin/sh -e DIR="${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}" mkdir -p -- "$DIR" TEMP="$(mktemp -d -- "$DIR/firefox-XXXXXX")" trap "rm -rf -- '$TEMP'" INT TERM EXIT wget 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pyllyukko/user.js/master/user.js' -O "$TEMP/user.js" firefox -profile "$TEMP" -no-remote "$@" It also uses very hardened options from https://github.com/pyllyukko/user.js https://github.com/pyllyukko/user.js It is not my invention, but I lost a link to blog post

hotdox 6y ago
Another alternative would be https://www.torproject.org/download/ https://www.torproject.org/download/
appleflaxen 6y ago
this is awesome; thank you.

yamrzou 6y ago

If security is your concern, you can run the browser inside a container: https://github.com/ConSol/docker-headless-vnc-container https://github.com/ConSol/docker-headless-vnc-container You can also use: https://browsergap.dosyago.com/ https://browsergap.dosyago.com/ There is also: https://firejail.wordpress.com/ https://firejail.wordpress.com/

gitgud 6y ago

Is there a problem with "Incognito Mode"? Modern browsers (Chromium and Firefox) are pretty well isolated as far as sand-boxing goes (compared to 15 years ago anyway). But if you really want to avoid advanced finger-printing and tracking, then you really need to use a VPN or TOR. As sites can track your IP, OS, Browser, screen dimensions... etc

appleflaxen 6y ago
thanks for mentioning this. i don't really trust google on incognito mode. G will hide my identity from others, but it knows all my surfing habits, including anywhere I go with incognito.