Osprey – Browser extension that protects you from malicious websites

https://github.com/Foulest/Osprey

by CHEF-KOCH • 1 year ago

22 26 1 year ago

github.com

xnx• 1 year ago

1) Why is this better than using the built in Chrome or Microsoft protections?

2) How do I know this isn't logging every URL I visit back to Osprey?

andy99• 1 year ago

On 2, it appears to be open source so you could look and see if/what it logs.

tgv• 1 year ago

I seems to send all urls you visit to Microsoft, Symantec, Emisoft, Webshield, Norton, Gdata Security, and/or BitDefender, depending on your settings. And of course, those URLs can be changed on the next update.

gorhill• 1 year ago

When you enable "Developer mode" in the "Extensions" page of your browser, you can open the developer tools for the extension by clicking the "service worker" link, and from there select the "Network" tab, you will be able all the network requests made by the extension from within its service worker.

gabrielsroka• 1 year ago

I just started using uBO Lite on Chrome. Brave is my daily driver and I just can't surf the web without an ad blocker anymore. I resisted it for years.

Thank you for all you do!

Foulest9• 1 year ago

Thanks gorhill. Yes, this is true! Osprey only sends its stripped-down URLs to the services you turn on. Nothing more. It's as anonymous as it can be without using a VPN, afaik.

jeroenhd• 1 year ago

Chrome and Edge contain just one single source of malicious website reports.

This addon uses multiple data sources.

As for logging: this submits URLs to various services. This is unlike Google Safe Browsing, which has a "periodically sync an offline database" setting (but will also send URLs to Google by default).

Foulest9• 1 year ago

1) Osprey is just more protections built into one. It combines seven pre-existing safe browsing extensions you can already download into one lighter and better extension. All these extensions do is send the URL you visit to an API. That's what SmartScreen and Google SafeBrowsing do. 2) Read gorhill's comment. Checking network activity is easy, and checking every extension is always good.

mfrisbie• 1 year ago

So this extension is feeding a stream of your browsing activity to a bunch of third party services? No thanks.

Foulest9• 1 year ago

The same thing happens with Google's SafeBrowsing, Microsoft's SmartScreen, Bitdefender TrafficLight, or Emsisoft Browser Protection. Osprey essentially combines multiple already existing browser protection extensions into one.

lostmsu• 1 year ago

SafeBrowsing uses local database AFAIK.

_Algernon_• 1 year ago

Not sure what this provides that a malicious site list for uBlock Origin provides in a better, more privacy preserving way.

Foulest9• 1 year ago

uBlock Origin's filters aren't up-to-date. You can go to PhishTank and try all the recently added websites on a VM. uBlock won't block any of them.

SamuelAdams• 1 year ago

How is this different from setting your DNS to a malware-blocking domain provider? For example Cloudflare’s malware dns is 1.1.1.2, Quad9 blocks malware by default with 9.9.9.9.

RamRodification3• 1 year ago

Two obvious differences to me:

Since it's a browser extension, it does not offer any protection outside the browser. If you use a DNS service with malware blocking it will, in theory, "protect" any DNS lookup your system performs. Including lookups that originate from software other than your web browser.

It also differs by using several different services to check all URLs (there's a list in the readme). If you set your DNS to Cloudflare and/or Quad9 you will only get protection from one of those.

I can think of pros and cons with both of these aspects.

alwa• 1 year ago

I’m curious how much those 7 lists overlap. Surely there must be a lot of unambiguous cases, but I wonder how much is on the margins.

true_blue• 1 year ago

ublock Origin already has a feature called "strict blocking" which does the same thing. In fact, the placeholder page that this extension takes you to looks almost exactly the same as the one that ublock origin uses.

RamRodification3• 1 year ago

does the same thing

Does that feature really send each URL you attempt to browse to a bunch of third-party services to be verified before it lets you browse them?

Edit: Made some not-very-thorough research and it seems like "strict blocking" in uBlock Origin does not do the same thing. It does local lookups against regularly updated filter lists. Like all of uBlock Origin's blocking, I guess.

Foulest9• 1 year ago

Osprey is entirely asynchronous. It doesn't hold pages at all. If you visit an unsafe website, you might see it for 50-250ms before the connection is stopped.

Foulest9• 1 year ago

I promise the warning page was made from scratch!

throwaway290• 1 year ago

Does it protect you from malicious extensions including possible future versions of itself? :)

wopurs• 1 year ago

I don't like the fact that it's sending all websites a user visits to a bunch of companies, specially companies that are not EU based.

Foulest9• 1 year ago

It uses the same exact framework as Google SafeBrowsing and Microsoft SmartScreen.

Osprey – Browser extension that protects you from malicious websites

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