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I tried creating a web browser and Google blocked me (2019)

blog.samuelmaddock.com

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Re: I tried creating a web browser and Google blocked me (2019)

#41

Post by butt_hugger »

AndrewUnmuted wrote: post #31
atarian wrote: post #22

Not sure if this is covered under Widevine, but Google also blocks anything that is not a major browser from logging into any of its services. https://security.googleblog.com/2019/04/better-protection-ag...

Sorry to go off-topic slightly, but can any INFOSEC people confirm that this idea below makes any sense? The conventional thinking, as far as I am aware, has always been that JavaScript increases your attack vector and diminishes your security coverage. > Last year, we announced that we would require JavaScript to be enabled in your browser when you sign in so that we can run a risk assessment whenever credentials ar…

You are correct. This is just for Google's benefit, as you can imagine. They are Google, after all.

Re: I tried creating a web browser and Google blocked me (2019)

#42

Post by supermatt »

I had the same problem. After a couple of emails, I got completely ghosted. They simply do not respond.

Seems that google pushed hard for EME, under the guise of giving widevine to anyone who wanted it. Of course, as is evident from OPs situation - this isn't the case.

There is an ongoing EC investigation.

Re: I tried creating a web browser and Google blocked me (2019)

#43

Post by LeoPanthera »

eivarv wrote: post #38
atarian wrote: post #22

Not sure if this is covered under Widevine, but Google also blocks anything that is not a major browser from logging into any of its services. https://security.googleblog.com/2019/04/better-protection-ag...

A more precise wording might be "... Google also blocks anything that's implemented in an embedded framework (e.g. CEF, webviews) and does not use browser-based OAuth authentication."

That's not correct, as Konqueror and Falkon browsers are also blocked.

Re: I tried creating a web browser and Google blocked me (2019)

#44

Post by smaddock »

paultopia wrote: post #37

Wait, what is this person trying to do? They're not happy that Google open-sourced Chrome, so they also demand that Google open-source some DRM system so that they can make a media player for Netflix or something? Forgive me for not feeling sorry for someone who wants to make a browser polluted with DRM who complains that someone else is enforcing their copyright.

The intention was to build a media player based on a Chromium-derived web browser. Functionally it would playback content on Netflix, Hulu, and other DRM-enabled services.

The problem isn't the closed source nature of Widevine CDM, but rather that access to use it is rather difficult to come by.

DRM goes against the concept of an Open Web in which anyone can build a web browser without asking permission.

Re: I tried creating a web browser and Google blocked me (2019)

#45

Post by eivarv »

LeoPanthera wrote: post #43
eivarv wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A more precise wording might be "... Google also blocks anything that's implemented in an embedded framework (e.g. CEF, webviews) and does not use browser-based OAuth authentication."

That's not correct, as Konqueror and Falkon browsers are also blocked.

I'm just summarizing what the linked article actually says.

As for your examples, Konqueror and Falkon might be blocked because they use Qt WebEngine – which embeds Blink in the Qt framework [0].

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blink_(browser_engine)#Framewo...

Re: I tried creating a web browser and Google blocked me (2019)

#46

Post by codemac »

paultopia wrote: post #37

Wait, what is this person trying to do? They're not happy that Google open-sourced Chrome, so they also demand that Google open-source some DRM system so that they can make a media player for Netflix or something? Forgive me for not feeling sorry for someone who wants to make a browser polluted with DRM who complains that someone else is enforcing their copyright.

https://thenib.com/mister-gotcha/

Yes, someone attempted to build a tool that was interesting to them, and ran into DRM related roadblocks.

Life is not all or nothing. Even GNU is a a matter of free software improving over time rather than a purity test. Do you really think RMS refused to run grep until it was FLOSS?

Re: I tried creating a web browser and Google blocked me (2019)

#47

Post by ocdtrekkie »

eivarv wrote: post #38
atarian wrote: post #22

Not sure if this is covered under Widevine, but Google also blocks anything that is not a major browser from logging into any of its services. https://security.googleblog.com/2019/04/better-protection-ag...

A more precise wording might be "... Google also blocks anything that's implemented in an embedded framework (e.g. CEF, webviews) and does not use browser-based OAuth authentication."

The problem is a web browser is arguably something which has a webview in it. The difference Google considers between "a browser" and "an app embedding a webview" is whether that app is specifically Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, or IE.

Re: I tried creating a web browser and Google blocked me (2019)

#48

Post by ytpete »

ttt0 wrote: post #10
underseacables wrote: post #2

Why aren’t there more browsers? Is it just a matter of all the IP tied up by the majors?

Too many standards to follow, too many APIs, too complicated. Sometimes I wonder if the web standards aren't designed specifically to prevent any meaningful competition.

Looking at the holistic picture (as anyone implementing an entire browser must), it's probably a stretch to say they're "designed" at all – web standards are a patchwork of almost archaeological layers built up over several decades. Even many deprecated bits must still be implemented to support the millions of websites users will want to visit. Backwards compatibility is hard :-/
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