A proposal to restrict sites from accessing a users’ local network
1–10 of 392 posts
Re: A proposal to restrict sites from accessing a users’ local network
#2I guess this would help Meta’s sneaking identification code sharing between native apps and websites with their sdk on them from communicating serendipitously through localhost, particularly on Android.
[0] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/03/meta_pauses_android_t...
Re: A proposal to restrict sites from accessing a users’ local network
#3Do note that since the removal of NPAPI plugins years ago, locally-installed software that intends to be used by one or more public websites has to run an HTTP server on localhost.
It would be really annoying if this use case was made into an unreasonable hassle or killed entirely. (Alternatively, browser developers could've offered a real alternative, but it's a bit late for that now.)
Re: A proposal to restrict sites from accessing a users’ local network
#4I understand the idea behind it and am still kinda chewing on the scope of it all. It will probably break some enterprise applications and cause some help desk or group policy/profile headaches for some.
It would be nice to know when a site is probing the local network. But by the same token, here is Google once again putting barriers on self sufficiency and using them to promote their PaaS goals.
They'll gladly narc on your self hosted application doing what it's supposed to do, but what about the 23 separate calls to Google CDN, ads, fonts, ect that every website has your browser make?
I tend to believe the this particular functionality is no longer of any use to Google, which is why they want to deprecate it to raise the barrier of entry for others.
Re: A proposal to restrict sites from accessing a users’ local network
#5I understand the idea behind it and am still kinda chewing on the scope of it all. It will probably break some enterprise applications and cause some help desk or group policy/profile headaches for some. It would be nice to know when a site is probing the local network. But by the same token, here is Google once again putting barriers on self sufficiency and using them to promote their PaaS goals. They'll gladly narc…
Idk, I like the idea of my browser warning me when a random website I visit tries to talk to my network. if there's a legitimate reason I can still click yes. This is orthogonal to any ads and data collection.
Re: A proposal to restrict sites from accessing a users’ local network
#6Do note that since the removal of NPAPI plugins years ago, locally-installed software that intends to be used by one or more public websites has to run an HTTP server on localhost. It would be really annoying if this use case was made into an unreasonable hassle or killed entirely. (Alternatively, browser developers could've offered a real alternative, but it's a bit late for that now.)
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Re: A proposal to restrict sites from accessing a users’ local network
#7The alternative proposal sounds much nicer, but unfortunately was paused due to concerns about devices not being able to support it.
I guess once this is added maybe the proposed device opt in mechanism could be used for applications to cooperatively support access without a permission prompt?
Re: A proposal to restrict sites from accessing a users’ local network
#8I understand the idea behind it and am still kinda chewing on the scope of it all. It will probably break some enterprise applications and cause some help desk or group policy/profile headaches for some. It would be nice to know when a site is probing the local network. But by the same token, here is Google once again putting barriers on self sufficiency and using them to promote their PaaS goals. They'll gladly narc…
I agree that any newly proposed standards for the web coming from Google should be met with a skeptical eye — they aren’t good stewards IMO and are usually self-serving.
I’d be interested in hearing what the folks at Ladybird think of this proposal.
Re: A proposal to restrict sites from accessing a users’ local network
#9I understand the idea behind it and am still kinda chewing on the scope of it all. It will probably break some enterprise applications and cause some help desk or group policy/profile headaches for some. It would be nice to know when a site is probing the local network. But by the same token, here is Google once again putting barriers on self sufficiency and using them to promote their PaaS goals. They'll gladly narc…
Idk, I like the idea of my browser warning me when a random website I visit tries to talk to my network. if there's a legitimate reason I can still click yes. This is orthogonal to any ads and data collection.
I have this today from macOS. To me it feels more appropriate to have the OS attempt to secure running applications.
Re: A proposal to restrict sites from accessing a users’ local network
#10I like this on the first glance. The idea of a random website probing arbitrary local IPs (or any IPs for that matter) with HTTP requests is insane. I wouldn't care if it breaks some enterprise apps or integrations - enterprises could reenable this "feature" via management tools, normal users could configure it themselves, just show a popup "this website wants to control local devices - allow/deny".