But re 1) I’m so confused, how does the browser have access to such information, never mind an addon?
I get that browsers can do way more than tcp port 80 these days, but I didn’t know it can do so much, man.
Or is that sniffing so closely related to the web site itself, i.e. is the actual web server doing it? I would expect that if someone would want to snoop on my network, they’d be using something else than a web server.
The screenshot in the article shows Websocket connections from the browser, which I think is the only non-HTTP connection that web pages can make?
Websockets always seemed a confusing technology, as they just kinda ignore the same origin policy that has been a fundamental part of JavaScript security since JavaScript’s creation!
I guess I’m mainly confused because the abilities of browser extensions have been so heavily eroded over time. Can’t make an extension to manage bookmarks anymore and lots of other things. So I’m surprised it could do such things.
But re 1) I’m so confused, how does the browser have access to such information, never mind an addon?
I get that browsers can do way more than tcp port 80 these days, but I didn’t know it can do so much, man.
Or is that sniffing so closely related to the web site itself, i.e. is the actual web server doing it? I would expect that if someone would want to snoop on my network, they’d be using something else than a web server.
Guess I need an eli10 for modern browsers.
The screenshot in the article shows Websocket connections from the browser, which I think is the only non-HTTP connection that web pages can make?
Websockets always seemed a confusing technology, as they just kinda ignore the same origin policy that has been a fundamental part of JavaScript security since JavaScript’s creation!
Yea I’ve always been weirded out by it. Thx
https://blog.nem.ec/2020/05/24/ebay-port-scanning/ this explains it pretty well, but not eli10
There are legitimate reasons to scan/connect to ports at localhost, the article even lists some (e.g AVs)
Hm, but browser addons?
I guess I’m mainly confused because the abilities of browser extensions have been so heavily eroded over time. Can’t make an extension to manage bookmarks anymore and lots of other things. So I’m surprised it could do such things.