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Browse the archived web the old way: 13 emulated browsers in your browser

oldweb.today

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Re: Browse the archived web the old way: 13 emulated browsers in your browser

#11
post #2

oldweb.today connects to various web archives and allows users to browse old websites in old browsers, each running in a Docker container. Emulators such as Basilisk, Sheepshaver and Wine are used to run old MacOS and Windows browsers, alongside Linux versions of Mosaic and Netscape. The Memento protocol is used to talk to multiple web archives and combine results. The project is fully open-source and available at ht…

How's Docker security these days? Wouldn't there be risks of exploiting remote code execution vulnerabilities in the old browsers, then finding a way to attack the host from within the container? Especially given that, if I'm reading this right, all users within the container have complete, password-free sudo access: https://github.com/ikreymer/netcapsule/blob/2ff2f5d74fb517ee... I guess an attacker would also have t…

Yes good point, this warrants some more research. The sudo was useful for install but I should see if it can be removed. Should also explore if there are concrete ways that the host can be attacked from the container, if a user does manage to execute code. Please comment if anyone has any other suggestions for improving security.

Re: Browse the archived web the old way: 13 emulated browsers in your browser

#12
post #2

oldweb.today connects to various web archives and allows users to browse old websites in old browsers, each running in a Docker container. Emulators such as Basilisk, Sheepshaver and Wine are used to run old MacOS and Windows browsers, alongside Linux versions of Mosaic and Netscape. The Memento protocol is used to talk to multiple web archives and combine results. The project is fully open-source and available at ht…

Suggestion: run the x86/ppc emulator in the browser to reduce server load.

I don't think JS-based emulators are quite there yet in terms of performance, but I've no doubt that they will be eventually. I think this is the next best option for now.
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