uBlock Origin criticized for blocking CSP
The popular content blocking extension uBlock Origin blocks CSP reporting on websites that make use of it if it injects neutered scripts.
CSP, Content Security Policy, can be used by web developers to whitelist code that is allowed to run on web properties. The idea behind the feature is to prevent attackers from injecting JavaScript on websites protected by CSP.
CSP reports any attempt of interfering with the site's policies in regards to scripts to the webmaster. This happens when users connect to the site, and is used by webmasters to analyze and resolve the detected issues.
Tips:
- uBlock Origin: official repository and downloads
- uBlock Origin: how to remove any element from a page permanently
Scott Helme opened a support ticket on the official uBlock Origin GitHub page a couple of days ago in which he stated that the content blocker was blocking the "sending of legitimate CSP reports".
It is true that reports are blocked. You can visit his website, https://scotthelme.co.uk/, and check the network log in your browser of choice to see the failed reporting attempts if you have uBlock Origin installed in the browser.
Raymond Hill, the developer of uBlock Origin, replied stating that this was not a bug but by design. The extension blocks the sending of CSP reports if it injects a neutered Google Analytics script.
The browser extension uBlock Origin blocks Google Analytics to prevent user tracking. Since some sites stop working correctly if Google Analytics is not loaded properly, a neutered script is injected instead to reduce the likelihood of sites breaking.
CSP reports may be fired because of the injecting of the neutered scripts, and uBlock Origin blocks those as well to prevent information leakage.
uBO won't be the cause of user information being leaked. The consequence of uBO doing its job (injecting neutered scripts) may cause CSP reports to be fired, hence uBO blocks CSP reports.
Every network request which leaves a user agent must be for the benefit of the user, including CSP reports. The user agent is not owned by the remote server such that it gets to decide what should never be blocked or not.
Hence if a network request to a remote server is potentially detrimental to the user, it gets blocked, especially if that network request is fired solely as a result of uBO doing its job. This is such case here.
Basically, what it comes down to is the following: uBlock Origin acts first and foremost on behalf of its users. This means that it will block the sending of CSP reports that could be a result of the extension injecting neutered scripts to block information such as the user's IP address, user agent and time and date the requests were made.
Third-parties could abuse the system for user tracking, and that is another reason why these reports are blocked in uBlock Origin.
The extension does not block all CSP reports. It only does so only if a neutered script is injected by the extension on a page. This happens only obviously if a resource on the page was blocked, say Google Analytics was blocked, and if a neutered version of the script exists. No CSP report is blocked if that is not the case.
Raymond Hill will release an update to the WebExtensions versions of uBlock Origin in the near future that distinguishes between CSP reports caused by the injecting of neutered scripts and regular CSP reports. CSP reports are assumed spurious if, for whatever reason, uBlock Origin cannot parse the report however.
Closing Words
Users come first when it comes to uBlock Origin, and that is one of the reasons why the extension and its developer are as popular as they are.
Doesn’t Windows 8 know that www. or http:// are passe ?
Well it is a bit difficulty to distinguish between name.com domains and files for instance.
I know a service made by google that is similar to Google bookmarks.
http://www.google.com/saved
@Ashwin–Thankful you delighted my comment; who knows how many “gamers” would have disagreed!
@Martin
The comments section under this very article (3 comments) is identical to the comments section found under the following article:
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/15/netflix-is-testing-game-streaming-on-tvs-and-computers/
Not sure what the issue is, but have seen this issue under some other articles recently but did not report it back then.
Omg a badge!!!
Some tangible reward lmao.
It sucks that redditors are going to love the fuck out of it too.
With the cloud, there is no such thing as unlimited storage or privacy. Stop relying on these tech scums. Purchase your own hardware and develop your own solutions.
This is a certified reddit cringe moment. Hilarious how the article’s author tries to dress it up like it’s anything more than a png for doing the reddit corporation’s moderation work for free (or for bribes from companies and political groups)
Almost al unlmited services have a real limit.
And this comment is written on the dropbox article from August 25, 2023.
First comment > @ilev said on August 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm
For the God’s sake, fix the comments soon please! :[
Yes. Please. Fix the comments.
With Google Chrome, it’s only been 1,500 for some time now.
Anyone who wants to force me in such a way into buying something that I can get elsewhere for free will certainly never see a single dime from my side. I don’t even know how stupid their marketing department is to impose these limits on users instead of offering a valuable product to the paying faction. But they don’t. Even if you pay, you get something that is also available for free elsewhere.
The algorithm has also become less and less savvy in terms of e.g. English/German translations. It used to be that the bot could sort of sense what you were trying to say and put it into different colloquialisms, which was even fun because it was like, “I know what you’re trying to say here, how about…” Now it’s in parts too stupid to translate the simplest sentences correctly, and the suggestions it makes are at times as moronic as those made by Google Translations.
If this is a deep-learning AI that learns from users’ translations and the phrases they choose most often – which, by the way, is a valuable, moneys worthwhile contribution of every free user to this project: They invest their time and texts, thereby providing the necessary data for the AI to do the thing as nicely as they brag about it in the first place – alas, the more unprofessional users discovered the translator, the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, the greater the aggregate of linguistically illiterate users has become, and the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, as it now learns the drivel of every Tom, Dick and Harry out there, which is why I now get their Mickey Mouse language as suggestions: the inane language of people who can barely spell the alphabet, it seems.
And as a thank you for our time and effort in helping them and their AI learn, they’ve lowered the limit from what was once 5,000 to now 1,500…? A big “fuck off” from here for that! Not a brass farthing from me for this attitude and behaviour, not in a hundred years.
When will you put an end to the mess in the comments?
Ghacks comments have been broken for too long. What article did you see this comment on? Reply below. If we get to 20 different articles we should all stop using the site in protest.
I posted this on [https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/] so please reply if you see it on a different article.
Comment redirected me to [https://www.ghacks.net/2012/08/04/add-search-the-internet-to-the-windows-start-menu/] which seems to be the ‘real’ article it is attached to
Comment redirected me to [https://www.ghacks.net/2012/08/04/add-search-the-internet-to-the-windows-start-menu/] which seems to be the ‘real’ article it is attached to
Article Title: Reddit enforces user activity tracking on site to push advertising revenue
Article URL: https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/
No surprises here. This is just the beginning really. I cannot see a valid reason as to why anyone would continue to use the platform anymore when there are enough alternatives fill that void.
I’m not sure if there is a point in commenting given that comments seem to appear under random posts now, but I’ll try… this comment is for https://www.ghacks.net/2023/09/28/reddit-enforces-user-activity-tracking-on-site-to-push-advertising-revenue/
My temporary “solution”, if you can call it that, is to use a VPN (Mullvad in my case) to sign up for and access Reddit via a European connection. I’m doing that with pretty much everything now, at least until the rest of the world catches up with GDPR. I don’t think GDPR is a magical privacy solution but it’s at least a first step.