Google Chrome Is Getting Automatic Blocking of Malicious Downloads 138
An anonymous reader writes "Google today announced Chrome is getting an automatic download blocking feature for malware. Google has already added the new functionality to the latest build of Chrome Canary. All versions of Chrome will soon automatically block downloads and let you know in a message at the bottom of your screen. You will be able to "Dismiss" the message, although it's not clear if you will be able to stop or revert the block."
Re:Bah... (Score:3, Interesting)
You should use Srware Iron, a Chromium fork. It removes a LOT of the nastiness and annoyances from Chrome. I've been using it as my standard for years and ditched chrome completely since v29's fucked up New Tab Page.
How long until "malicious" defined as ... (Score:4, Interesting)
...software contrary to corporate (RIAA/BSA) interests?
The HOW it is implemented is important (Score:2, Interesting)
If this feature is implemented as a cloud service, i.e. each URL will be checked by Google before the browser is executing it then say good-bye privacy. It would be the last thing that you would like to have: a browser that spies on you.
If this feature is implemented with a signature file that is updated from time to time, then it is the same snake-oil as each anti-virus and is probably not harmful. It might even be useful for those people who also have use for anti-virus software.
Re:Not sure how this is different (Score:5, Interesting)
If its what I think they're going to do (reputation detaction Ala IE9) it won't help much. See my sig if you want to go more in depth as to why.
Besides, The biggest Threats are the following
1) Malicious Forked Open Source Software
2) Installers with Bundled Adware
for #1: look at VLC. there's so many malicious forks of this I can't even count them. Many times they're just Renames, but other times they have more adware and spyware Embeeded in them than I can count. Hell One I found Shows ads before you watch any video.
Another example is "Fast Browser" which is a chromium browser fork with spyware baked in. it looks exactly like chrome and the only difference I can tell is the Icon (which rips off the chrome Icon, only Square) and the name in the about box.
for #2. Lets do a search for VLC and highlight any download site that's not from videolan.org or sourceforge (although I should count sourceforge. they're doing this too now) (obfuscated to avoid clicking)
VLCapp,com ..and these are just the results from 1st page direct searches or ads from bing and google alone.
vlcmediaplayer,org
Softonic,com
4soft,org
softwareinstall,com
soft82,com
softdls,com
download-pc,com
download366,com
os-downloads,com
I can all but guarantee that downloading anything from the above sites will get you some Potentially unwanted program or virus. I just wish that someone would make an Adblock plus list like the malware domain list for fake downloading sites.
Now I know that it sounds like I'm Picking on VLC here, but it's just one of the more hijacked examples. You can do this with just about any popular Program. Firefox, Chrome, 7zip, Openoffice, Minecraft, even IE10 and Windows Media Player have software wrappers.
Hell. Even the Microsoft Store in WIndows 8 isn't safe. Do a search for VLC there and the first or second hit is a link to getdesktopapp,com which piles on the junkware. when you look at the app's Publisher. he's doing the same thing with peazip, 7zip UMPlayer and openoffice.
If Chrome does something about these software wrappers then were talking, otherwise it's nothing new from what they were doing before or what IE's been doing for years, and that hasn't stopped anything either.
Re:Bah... (Score:2, Interesting)
Interesting... I find Chrome's autocomplete to be nearly perfect for me, and it's probably my primary reason for staying with Chrome. This is definitely the sort of thing where personal taste would come into play, though, and I can see its behavior being annoying if you're not on its wavelength.
Re:How long until "malicious" defined as ... (Score:3, Interesting)