Google Chrome Developers On Browser Security 61
CowboyRobot writes "Developers of Google's Chrome browser have spoken up in an article describing their approach to keeping the browser secure, focusing on minimizing the frequency, duration, and severity of exposure. One tool Chrome uses is a recently open-sourced update distribution application called 'Omaha.' 'Omaha automatically checks for software updates every five hours. When a new update is available, a fraction of clients are told about it, based on a probability set by the team. This probability lets the team verify the quality of the release before informing all clients.'"
Re:Beta testers (Score:5, Informative)
No, they're getting a random sample of their user base to test a ready-for-release patch so that in case there are a couple cases not within their testing scenarios where the patch is unstable or a security hole is present, they will be able to address that (if it's serious enough) before releasing it to the whole world. This is so much better than the current way of doing things, because patches are still tested in the shop to the same degree as they would be without Omaha, except this way there's even more to be sure that the patch works correctly.
Another reason to turf Flash ASAP (Score:4, Informative)
And get into HTML5 for video etc:
"Google Chrome must support plug-ins such as Flash Player and Silverlight so users can visit popular Web sites such as YouTube. These plug-ins are not designed to run in a sandbox, however, and they expect direct access to the underlying operating system. This allows them to implement features such as full-screen video chat with access to the entire screen, the userâ(TM)s webcam, and microphone. Google Chrome does not currently run these plug-ins in a sandbox, instead relying on their respective vendors to maintain their own security."