3 ms·

See http://blog.sidstamm.com/2012/02/malware-and-phishing-protection-in.html http://blog.sidstamm.com/2012/02/malware-and-phishing-protec... and http://bugzil.l

See http://blog.sidstamm.com/2012/02/malware-and-phishing-protection-in.html http://blog.sidstamm.com/2012/02/malware-and-phishing-protec... and http://bugzil.la/368255 http://bugzil.la/368255 Google's Safe Browsing API (malware and phishing protection) requires a cookie. But Firefox puts that cookie in a separate bucket than the one used for regular requests. If you have cookies enabled, you'll actually end up with two separate google.com "PREF" cookies - one for regular HTTP requests, and one just for for updating the Safe Browsing lists. Disabling Safe Browsing will prevent that cookie from every being sent, and should allow you to delete it (EDIT: modulo the cookie manager bug below). UPDATE: It looks like http://bugzil.la/1026538 http://bugzil.la/1026538 is why the cookie keeps reappearing.

xenophonf 12y ago
Got it, thanks. I've disabled Safe Browsing and the cookie is gone. I'm curious: Does the Safe Browsing API offer any privacy guarantees? I confess that I don't really know how it works, although based on how it works with ClamAV, I assumed that Firefox periodically downloaded something from Google that let Firefox check a given URL against a list of known-bad hashes. If that's the case, I wouldn't mind leaving Safe Browsing enabled.
- mbrubeck 12y ago
  > I assumed that Firefox periodically downloaded something from Google that let Firefox check a given URL against a list of known-bad hashes. Yes, that's basically how it works. Firefox periodically downloads a database of blocked URLs. Before loading a web page, it checks this database. If the check is negative then Firefox displays the page normally. If the check is positive, Firefox will also send a hashed URL to the Safe Browsing server to double-check whether to block the page or not. This page has more documentation, including a link to the API specification: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-does-phishing-and-malware-protection-work https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-does-phishing-and-m...

xenophonf 12y ago

Got it, thanks. I've disabled Safe Browsing and the cookie is gone. I'm curious: Does the Safe Browsing API offer any privacy guarantees? I confess that I don't really know how it works, although based on how it works with ClamAV, I assumed that Firefox periodically downloaded something from Google that let Firefox check a given URL against a list of known-bad hashes. If that's the case, I wouldn't mind leaving Safe Browsing enabled.

mbrubeck 12y ago
> I assumed that Firefox periodically downloaded something from Google that let Firefox check a given URL against a list of known-bad hashes. Yes, that's basically how it works. Firefox periodically downloads a database of blocked URLs. Before loading a web page, it checks this database. If the check is negative then Firefox displays the page normally. If the check is positive, Firefox will also send a hashed URL to the Safe Browsing server to double-check whether to block the page or not. This page has more documentation, including a link to the API specification: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-does-phishing-and-malware-protection-work https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-does-phishing-and-m...