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Shadow: New browser engine made almost entirely in JavaScript

goose.icu

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Re: Shadow: New browser engine made almost entirely in JavaScript

#91

There's a product here that's been waiting to happen for awhile. I've been anticipating somebody cross-compiling another browser engine to WASM but this works, too. Deliver your site only to the "inner browser" (that the user has no control over because it's heavily obfuscated and tricked-out with anti-debugging code) and you eliminate all ad blockers. Throw some DNS-over-HTTPS w/ certificate pinning in for good meas…

The next step in the arms race is to provide hosted ad blocking, where the action happens (however nested) in a headless server and an AI looks it over and relays only the stuff that looks like content into a cleaned up session for the user. It would eventually start looking like a CDN where the ad blocker caches the content so it doesn't have to bother contacting the underlying site so often. I would pay for such a…

I wouldn't, because sending all of your browsing history to any third party is going to result in them mining and selling it, or exposing it to state actors or someone else for direct surveillance/malware injection.

Eventually, AI will be something we can run locally on a typical desktop, or even a cell phone, and at that point we could locally host that kind of ad blocking, but trusting all of your traffic to some random company that promises to delete ads but not abuse their position seems naive given our situation today. It preserves the worst dangers of ads while adding even less control and transparency for the user.

Re: Shadow: New browser engine made almost entirely in JavaScript

#93
The fonts look terrible in LibreWolf and the FPS is only ~60. LibreWolf is also extension heavy. My default zoom on a page is 120% on a 1080 screen.

It doesn't load in (updated) Firefox, which is interesting. It only shows that the FPS is around 60. Not as many extension (vs LibreWolf). I rarely use FF (opting for LibreWolf).

On Brave (no extensions at all, except built in protections), the site runs at ~121FPS and the fonts look normal enough (no zoom, page at 100%). Fonts continue to look fine even when I zoom to 150% or higher.

I expected that my CPU temp would increase, maybe the fans might kick in... nothing. Cool as a cucumber. I have 4 browsers all opened on this page.

Interesting project. I read what @EvanAnderson wrote (evil software). I tend to agree. Respectfully, I don't see how this would be used. Browsers that already run JS don't need this. Browser that need this usually don't run JS (fails on Dillo, NetSurf, Lynx for example).

Re: Shadow: New browser engine made almost entirely in JavaScript

#94

There's a product here that's been waiting to happen for awhile. I've been anticipating somebody cross-compiling another browser engine to WASM but this works, too. Deliver your site only to the "inner browser" (that the user has no control over because it's heavily obfuscated and tricked-out with anti-debugging code) and you eliminate all ad blockers. Throw some DNS-over-HTTPS w/ certificate pinning in for good meas…

This might be something you fear, maybe even legitimately, but it seems hyperbolic to assign an equivalence to your worst fear and the passion project of an individual who made this and probably does not have any of the nefarious intentions you default to attributing to anyone who could create something resembling it.

[dead]

Re: Shadow: New browser engine made almost entirely in JavaScript

#95

There's a product here that's been waiting to happen for awhile. I've been anticipating somebody cross-compiling another browser engine to WASM but this works, too. Deliver your site only to the "inner browser" (that the user has no control over because it's heavily obfuscated and tricked-out with anti-debugging code) and you eliminate all ad blockers. Throw some DNS-over-HTTPS w/ certificate pinning in for good meas…

Pre-render the whole site to a server side canvas and then redraw it.

Re: Shadow: New browser engine made almost entirely in JavaScript

#96
post #41

There's a product here that's been waiting to happen for awhile. I've been anticipating somebody cross-compiling another browser engine to WASM but this works, too. Deliver your site only to the "inner browser" (that the user has no control over because it's heavily obfuscated and tricked-out with anti-debugging code) and you eliminate all ad blockers. Throw some DNS-over-HTTPS w/ certificate pinning in for good meas…

I was worried from the very start of the WASM tech, that it would lead to the end of the user-controlled client. You don't even really need an embedded browser, a motivated provider could create a completely proprietary protocol for rendering their pages.

Taking power away from the user seems to be a large part of the appeal of WASM. Wasn't it just a year or two ago that it was being reported that 75% of WASM modules are malicious? A study from a previous year had said 50% of all websites using it were malicious so the trend line isn't looking great.

I don't know how we got from "don't download and install random software from untrusted sources on your devices" to "let anyone with a website run code directly on your hardware. Sandboxes are impossible to breach!"

I get that it's cool tech and the promise of writing software to run on many different platforms is exciting, but from a real world/user perspective it's insane.

Re: Shadow: New browser engine made almost entirely in JavaScript

#97
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At that point I'm just going to have my ad blocker block the entire "inner browser." No website that would employ such a lovecraftian horror is worth visiting anyway.

Presumably the worry is that the big ad companies would get approximately every website in the world to use this technique, which is already the only reason web advertising is such a big problem.

If it becomes ubiquitous enough, I'm assuming defeating it will become automatable

Re: Shadow: New browser engine made almost entirely in JavaScript

#98
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At that point I'm just going to have my ad blocker block the entire "inner browser." No website that would employ such a lovecraftian horror is worth visiting anyway.

Presumably the worry is that the big ad companies would get approximately every website in the world to use this technique, which is already the only reason web advertising is such a big problem.

> ad companies would get approximately every website in the world to use this technique

I really doubt it, but if that did happen then I could simplify my filter list to just a single wildcard. Silver lining.

Re: Shadow: New browser engine made almost entirely in JavaScript

#99
post #95

There's a product here that's been waiting to happen for awhile. I've been anticipating somebody cross-compiling another browser engine to WASM but this works, too. Deliver your site only to the "inner browser" (that the user has no control over because it's heavily obfuscated and tricked-out with anti-debugging code) and you eliminate all ad blockers. Throw some DNS-over-HTTPS w/ certificate pinning in for good meas…

Pre-render the whole site to a server side canvas and then redraw it.

iFrame 2.0

Re: Shadow: New browser engine made almost entirely in JavaScript

#100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> https://shadow.goose.icu/?https://shadow.goose.icu > Fatal error Not quite!

Anything I tried returns fatal error. Is this really how it meant to browse a URL?

https://shadow.goose.icu/?https://nostalgia.wikipedia.org/wi...
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