Skip to content
New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Revise notes on Mull/GeckoView Android #2542

Merged
merged 1 commit into from
Apr 19, 2024
Merged

Revise notes on Mull/GeckoView Android #2542

Changes from all commits
Commits
Show all changes
1 commit
Select commit
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
19 changes: 12 additions & 7 deletions docs/mobile-browsers.md
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -130,13 +130,6 @@ Brave allows you to select additional content filters within the internal `brave

### Mull

<div class="admonition danger" markdown>
<p class="admonition-title">Danger</p>

Firefox (Gecko)-based browsers on Android [lack per-site process isolation](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1565196), a powerful security feature that offers additional protection against a malicious website exploiting a security vulnerability. Missing this feature likely won't pose an issue for low-risk web browsers who keep their browser up-to-date, but those visiting higher-risk sites or at risk of targeted/0-day attacks should strongly consider a Chromium-based browser like [Brave](#brave) instead.

</div>

<div class="admonition recommendation" markdown>

![Mull logo](assets/img/browsers/mull.svg){ align=right }
Expand All @@ -157,6 +150,16 @@ Firefox (Gecko)-based browsers on Android [lack per-site process isolation](http

</div>

<div class="admonition danger" markdown>
<p class="admonition-title">Danger</p>

Firefox (Gecko)-based browsers on Android [lack](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1610822) [site isolation](https://wiki.mozilla.org/Project_Fission),[^1] a powerful security feature that protects against a malicious site performing a [Spectre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectre_(security_vulnerability))-like attack to gain access to the memory of another website you have open.[^2] Chromium-based browsers like [Brave](#brave) will provide more robust protection against malicious websites.

</div>

[^1]: This should not be mistaken for [state partitioning](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Privacy/State_Partitioning) (or dynamic [first party isolation](https://2019.www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser/design/#identifier-linkability)), where website data such as cookies and cache is restricted so that a third-party embedded in one top-level site cannot access data stored under another top-level site. This is an important privacy feature to prevent cross-site tracking and **is** supported by Firefox on Android.
[^2]: GeckoView also [does not](https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1565196) take advantage of Android's native process sandboxing by using the [isolatedProcess](https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/service-element#isolated) flag, which normally allows an app to safely run less trusted code in a separate process that has no permissions of its own.

Enable DivestOS's [F-Droid Repo](https://divestos.org/fdroid/official) to receive updates directly from the developer. Downloading Mull from the default F-Droid repo will mean your updates could be delayed by a few days or longer.

Mull enables many features upstreamed by the [Tor uplift project](https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Tor_Uplift) using preferences from [Arkenfox](desktop-browsers.md#arkenfox-advanced). Proprietary blobs are removed from Mozilla's code using the scripts developed for Fennec F-Droid.
Expand All @@ -167,6 +170,8 @@ We would suggest installing [uBlock Origin](browser-extensions.md#ublock-origin)

Mull comes with privacy protecting settings configured by default. You might consider configuring the **Delete browsing data on quit** options in Mull's settings if you want to close all your open tabs when quitting the app automatically, or clear other data such as browsing history and cookies automatically.

Because Mull has more advanced and strict privacy protections enabled by default compared to most browsers, some websites may not load or work properly unless you adjust those settings. You can consult this [list of known issues and workarounds](https://divestos.org/pages/broken#mull) for advice on a potential fix if you do encounter a broken site. Adjusting a setting in order to fix a website could impact your privacy/security, so make sure you fully understand any instructions you follow.

## iOS

On iOS, any app that can browse the web is [restricted](https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines) to using an Apple-provided [WebKit framework](https://developer.apple.com/documentation/webkit), so there is little reason to use a third-party web browser.
Expand Down
Loading