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Just stop using browser extensions. No you don’t need a JSON prettifier that has full powers and can read data from web pages on any domain. You don’t need a
by philsnow 5y ago
Just stop using browser extensions.
No you don’t need a JSON prettifier that has full powers and can read data from web pages on any domain. You don’t need a thing to help you to compose English prose better (or maybe you do but don’t use the extension).
The browser is the modern operating system, and we have made it trivial to allow users to pwn themselves with two clicks.
- alisonkisk 5y agoHow is your argument different from "don't use software to solve problems"?
- captn3m0 5y agoThe "JSON prettifier" example is exactly what compromised my browser once, long ago. I only found out because I noticed the "this extension is no longer available on the Chrome store" mention on the chrome://extensions page or something of the sort. It was silently ex-filtering list of all URLs I visited against a unique identifier.
- sp332 5y ago"exfiltrating"
- dcsommer 5y agoWhat about password managers? The browser built-in ones aren't always the best choice.
- zorked 5y agoWhy not?
- mynameismon 5y ago1. Lack of a master password, so anyone who knows the password to your laptop knows all your passwords 2. Inability to access them anywhere, anytime 3. Possibility of compromise in case of compromise of system[1] 4. No sharing 5. Absolutely terrible password generation (a string of random characters) [1]: https://null-byte.wonderhowto.com/how-to/hacking-windows-10-steal-decrypt-passwords-stored-chrome-firefox-remotely-0183600/ https://null-byte.wonderhowto.com/how-to/hacking-windows-10-...
- faeyanpiraat 5y agoWhat’s wrong with a string of random characters?
- mook 5y agoAs far as I know, none of the browser-provided password managers let you sync outside of an internet-connected account system. I can sync my passwords over my local network just fine.
- ViViDboarder 5y agoI think that technically Firefox does, but it’s not easy to run your own account and sync server.
- johnebgd 5y agoPeople really do need additional functionality beyond what the browser provides. The browser should offer the user controls on what data plugins can remit from the computer.
- matheusmoreira 5y agoYeah. All extensions are potential malware. The only extensions I trust are uBlock Origin and those made by the EFF.
- userbinator 5y agoAll software is potential malware. Sometimes the definition of malware depends on whether you're the user or not!
- faeyanpiraat 5y agowym
- matheusmoreira 5y agoYes, but sometimes software comes from people who are generally trustworthy. Free and open source software from official Linux distribution repositories has a very low chance of being compromised.
- least 5y ago> Just stop using browser extensions. > The browser is the modern operating system... This is kind of like advocating to only use vendor-provided software on your actual operating system because any third party software might be insecure (ignoring the fact that the OS itself may be as well). Some people might be able to do that but the overwhelming majority of people would not find that tenable, so suggesting that one just not is neither productive nor realistic.
- userbinator 5y agoI see it as yet another piece of propaganda from the corporate-totalitarianism side of the war on general-purpose computing. They started squeezing people into the browser, then they slowly castrate the browser and turn it into another tool of control. No userstyles, no userscripts, no extensions, no URLs... All in the name of "security", of course... and people will blindly believe. The frog continues to cook slowly.