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> brave-core-ext.s3.brave.com fetches 5 extensions and installs them. It is said that this might be a backdoor. But I don’t want to get conspiracist. I prefer g

> brave-core-ext.s3.brave.com fetches 5 extensions and installs them. It is said that this might be a backdoor. But I don’t want to get conspiracist. I prefer giving you verifiable facts. I’ll limit myself to inform you about suspicious activities. Okay, so which 5 extensions? There has to be more information on this somewhere. Article seems kind of lazy and definitely loses steam after the second half.

chias 5y ago
That part in particular set the tone for this entire post for me. It convinced me that I could not trust the author to be intellectually or rhetorically honest, at which point I no longer see any value in this write-up. It also helped me read the rest of this post in the correct context. "Many people are saying this. Note that I'm not saying it, I only say true things. But I want you to think it anyway." Really?
upofadown 5y ago
You can see them listed at the bottom of this page: * https://spyware.neocities.org/articles/brave.html https://spyware.neocities.org/articles/brave.html ... which doesn't really add anything to the original assertion as we don't know what the extensions might do. The statement is all all there is.
celsoazevedo 5y ago
Could it be some of Brave features that seem to use extensions? For example, if I enable the "IPFS companion" or "WebTorrent", they show as extensions under the browser's "task manager": https://i.imgur.com/PFRkv5l.png https://i.imgur.com/PFRkv5l.png The only other thing I could think of is "chrome://components/" which also exists on Chrome and updates some browser components.
kunagi7 5y ago
Well... There's a more serious first start browser comparison by netmeister.org [0] which shows that 4 downloads are made. I downloaded and extracted the files. They look like helpers or partials for Brave internal extensions. All of them include manifest files with their names: - 1_0_14: "Brave HTTPS Everywhere Updater extension". Contains a 1MB ZIPped database of https domains. - 1_0_21: "Brave NTP sponsored images component". Contains three photos (to display in their new tab probably). - 1_0_22: "Brave Local Data Files Updater extension". Seems to contain whitelists and blacklists for extensions, autoplay, referers, trackers, etc. - 1_0_498: "Brave Ad Block Updater extension". Contains a 2.4 MB filter list for their adblocker implementation. Nothing seems to be harmful at all. This mechanism is used by almost all Chrome/Chromium based browsers to update their internal extensions and components. But, if the poster cares about backdoors... Well, every major browser out there has features that could be used to backdoor their users like Firefox Telemetry Experiments (which download xpi files) and Chrome Components. They also can change properties at will unless its disabled (via flags, about:config, recompiling, etc). Note: I'm a Vivaldi and Chromium user. I only use Brave with iOS which is kind of a different beast (since everything has to be implemented on top of iOS provided WebKit) since it somehow blocks ads better than stock Safari with AdGuard filters. For stuff like banking (on iOS) I use Safari. Note 2: Blink and WebKit have deviated quite dramatically so they are indeed different browser engines (like Gecko is) with different implementations, quirks and bugs. [0] https://www.netmeister.org/blog/browser-startup.html https://www.netmeister.org/blog/browser-startup.html

chias 5y ago

That part in particular set the tone for this entire post for me. It convinced me that I could not trust the author to be intellectually or rhetorically honest, at which point I no longer see any value in this write-up. It also helped me read the rest of this post in the correct context. "Many people are saying this. Note that I'm not saying it, I only say true things. But I want you to think it anyway." Really?

upofadown 5y ago

You can see them listed at the bottom of this page: * https://spyware.neocities.org/articles/brave.html https://spyware.neocities.org/articles/brave.html ... which doesn't really add anything to the original assertion as we don't know what the extensions might do. The statement is all all there is.

celsoazevedo 5y ago

Could it be some of Brave features that seem to use extensions? For example, if I enable the "IPFS companion" or "WebTorrent", they show as extensions under the browser's "task manager": https://i.imgur.com/PFRkv5l.png https://i.imgur.com/PFRkv5l.png The only other thing I could think of is "chrome://components/" which also exists on Chrome and updates some browser components.

kunagi7 5y ago

Well... There's a more serious first start browser comparison by netmeister.org [0] which shows that 4 downloads are made. I downloaded and extracted the files. They look like helpers or partials for Brave internal extensions. All of them include manifest files with their names: - 1_0_14: "Brave HTTPS Everywhere Updater extension". Contains a 1MB ZIPped database of https domains. - 1_0_21: "Brave NTP sponsored images component". Contains three photos (to display in their new tab probably). - 1_0_22: "Brave Local Data Files Updater extension". Seems to contain whitelists and blacklists for extensions, autoplay, referers, trackers, etc. - 1_0_498: "Brave Ad Block Updater extension". Contains a 2.4 MB filter list for their adblocker implementation. Nothing seems to be harmful at all. This mechanism is used by almost all Chrome/Chromium based browsers to update their internal extensions and components. But, if the poster cares about backdoors... Well, every major browser out there has features that could be used to backdoor their users like Firefox Telemetry Experiments (which download xpi files) and Chrome Components. They also can change properties at will unless its disabled (via flags, about:config, recompiling, etc). Note: I'm a Vivaldi and Chromium user. I only use Brave with iOS which is kind of a different beast (since everything has to be implemented on top of iOS provided WebKit) since it somehow blocks ads better than stock Safari with AdGuard filters. For stuff like banking (on iOS) I use Safari. Note 2: Blink and WebKit have deviated quite dramatically so they are indeed different browser engines (like Gecko is) with different implementations, quirks and bugs. [0] https://www.netmeister.org/blog/browser-startup.html https://www.netmeister.org/blog/browser-startup.html