Upcoming Chromium Update Could Make Ad Blockers Less Effective

AlphaAtlas

AlphaAtlas

[H]ard|Gawd
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Citing a bug report filed on Tuesday, Motherboard says that an upcoming Chromium update could make Chrome's higher end ad blockers less effective. Apparently, the Chromium team is trying to curb the widespread abuses in Chrome's extension market by implementing some stricter restrictions on what they can or can't do. Among other things, the update restricts any extension's ability to freely block network requests sent by ads. The Chromium team developed an API to try and keep some of those features, but apparently, they modeled it after the architecture of AdBlocker Plus, hence it will severely hamper the implementation of more sophisticated extensions like uBlock Origin and EasyList.

Ad blocker extensions like uBlock Origin work by reading network requests sent from ads on a web page to a user’s computer and filtering them according to the user’s preferences through a Chrome application program interface (API) called "webRequest." In the new version of Chrome, however, extensions will still be able to see the network requests sent to a user’s computer via webRequest, but they will no longer be able to block them. Instead, ad blockers will have to rely on an API called "declarativeNetRequest" which requires them to specify which types of network requests from ads they should block in advance, rather than allowing the dynamic blocking capabilities found in uBlock. The difference is like if you were charged with protecting a house, but could only pick a few of doors to protect in advance and hope your adversary chose those doors, rather than being able to move through the house and choose which doors to protect based on the ones an adversary was actually attacking.
 
This is utter CRAP. I install both ublock origin and ghostery on nearly every machine I touch. I have found out the hard way that infections, malware and SCAMS are nearly eliminated when you block connections to about 95% of the ads and trackers on the internet. Supposedly "legit" ads servers and trackers I might add.

Making Ublock Origin or Ghostery non-effective will make me militant about vocally opposing any of my customer's continued use of Chrome. I will actively fight for using something else.

The ad server issue on the internet has reached a point of absurdity. It doesn't matter what the revenue streams are there is so much malicious code out there getting pushed that you can't trust ANY of it. And Google isn't doing jack diddly bupkis to create an environment of trust for even its own ad servers.

Almost without fail, when I get a user in here that doesn't have the blockers on I'll be locked up on some web page to "call this number now your computer is infected!"
 
I remember the good ol days where editing your hosts file was all that was needed, now webpages have dynamic names that try to avoid all of that crap. Hey I want to go to a site and up comes pops ups for maleware imfested crap "your computer is at risk, click here", xratrd versions of p2w games, and meet asian/latina/etc women in <your city>
 
Advil said:
Almost without fail, when I get a user in here that doesn't have the blockers on I'll be locked up on some web page to "call this number now your computer is infected!"
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That's what happened to my Aunt the other day when she clicked an ad and got one of those webpages that says you need to update your antivirus or update windows. I'm beyond adblockers honestly, because I've taken extra precautions like using my router as the first level of ad blocking. I use OpenWRT on my TP-Link TL-WR1043N/ND v2 and you can install Adblock as a service. This won't work for YouTube as they supply ads through the same connection that supplies the videos but it will block everything else. I have Adaway on my rooted Asus Zenphone 2 cause I don't need that crap on my phone, plus I installed YouTube Vanced Edition because again you can't block YouTube ads traditionally. And yes, when I browse the web I use FireFox.

Chrome/Chromium is only a problem if you refuse to use the many other web browsers that exist.
 
Another thing mentioned in the bug report as being not allowed: the disabling of JavaScript execution through the injection of CSP directives.

Wonder what this new 'feature' will due to script blockers?
 
Advil said:
This is utter CRAP. I install both ublock origin and ghostery on nearly every machine I touch. I have found out the hard way that infections, malware and SCAMS are nearly eliminated when you block connections to about 95% of the ads and trackers on the internet. Supposedly "legit" ads servers and trackers I might add.

Making Ublock Origin or Ghostery non-effective will make me militant about vocally opposing any of my customer's continued use of Chrome. I will actively fight for using something else.

The ad server issue on the internet has reached a point of absurdity. It doesn't matter what the revenue streams are there is so much malicious code out there getting pushed that you can't trust ANY of it. And Google isn't doing jack diddly bupkis to create an environment of trust for even its own ad servers.

Almost without fail, when I get a user in here that doesn't have the blockers on I'll be locked up on some web page to "call this number now your computer is infected!"
Click to expand...

Just outa curiosity and you seem like the guy to ask, why not use Ublock, Ghostery, and Adblock Plus altogether? Is it redundant? Compatible? Only asking because that's what I do on my machine and I figure hell since they're free why not have three at once to cover all my cues and tees.
 
Biznatch said:
Meh, I already moved to PFBlockerNG at my endpoint. Browser can try and load all it wants, but the DNS query will be blocked.
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I really need to get off my ass and get a pfSense router in place, been meaning to for quite a while, just have never got around to it...
 
Ski said:
Just outa curiosity and you seem like the guy to ask, why not use Ublock, Ghostery, and Adblock Plus altogether? Is it redundant? Compatible? Only asking because that's what I do on my machine and I figure hell since they're free why not have three at once to cover all my cues and tees.
Click to expand...

I used to use Adblock Plus. ---In my experience--- Adblock Plus doesn't block enough anymore and lets too much through. Ublock Origin and Adblock Plus are both adblockers so both at once are redundant.

Ublock Origin for ads and some trackers... Ghostery for trackers and some ads. They overlap just right and block almost everything without breaking everything.

There may be other good blockers out there but I've used tons of them and this combo has been good to me.

Also, for those of you advocating blocking at the router level, SURE! ABSOLUTELY! If you are that computer and network savvy. I need solutions for people that have no hope of even logging into their router let alone changing settings. People that don't even know what a Raspberry Pi is...
 
Advil said:
I used to use Adblock Plus. ---In my experience--- Adblock Plus doesn't block enough anymore and lets too much through. Ublock Origin and Adblock Plus are both adblockers so both at once are redundant.

Ublock Origin for ads and some trackers... Ghostery for trackers and some ads. They overlap just right and block almost everything without breaking everything.

There may be other good blockers out there but I've used tons of them and this combo has been good to me.

Also, for those of you advocating blocking at the router level, SURE! ABSOLUTELY! If you are that computer and network savvy. I need solutions for people that have no hope of even logging into their router let alone changing settings. People that don't even know what a Raspberry Pi is...
Click to expand...

Yes but blocking by a network level can effect your work or there may be people in your household who want to take control of it instead with a addon or program.
 
Advil said:
Ublock Origin for ads and some trackers... Ghostery for trackers and some ads. They overlap just right and block almost everything without breaking everything.

People that don't even know what a Raspberry Pi is...
Click to expand...

So if you were in my shoes, would you uninstall Adblock then?
 
Advil said:
I used to use Adblock Plus. ---In my experience--- Adblock Plus doesn't block enough anymore and lets too much through. Ublock Origin and Adblock Plus are both adblockers so both at once are redundant.

Ublock Origin for ads and some trackers... Ghostery for trackers and some ads. They overlap just right and block almost everything without breaking everything.

There may be other good blockers out there but I've used tons of them and this combo has been good to me.

Also, for those of you advocating blocking at the router level, SURE! ABSOLUTELY! If you are that computer and network savvy. I need solutions for people that have no hope of even logging into their router let alone changing settings. People that don't even know what a Raspberry Pi is...
Click to expand...

For Untangle. You toggle one switch. No knowledge needed. :)
Annotation 2019-01-23 133928.jpg
 
ng4ever said:
How much is Untangle anyway ? I am using the free trial right now.
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I do their home license.

Get NG Firewall HomePro


HomePro is a NG Firewall subscription for residential, non-commercial use.



Starting at $50.00 a year!
 
Axiomatic said:
I do their home license.

Get NG Firewall HomePro


HomePro is a NG Firewall subscription for residential, non-commercial use.



Starting at $50.00 a year!
Click to expand...


OMG please tell me your joking?

That is enough for Plex.
 
Advil said:
I need solutions for people that have no hope of even logging into their router let alone changing settings. People that don't even know what a Raspberry Pi is...
Click to expand...
Then those people use tablets and that's a whole other ball game. If they still use PC then FireFox+Ublock will do just fine.
 
ng4ever said:
Do you mean with a router or with everything ? As in not even possible with applications to block ads and placeholders.
Click to expand...
Not the placeholders are what I meant. That's part of the CSS frame so I don't think those can be removed?
 
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