On 2018/08/06 19:04, Landry Breuil wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 06, 2018 at 05:53:53PM +0100, Stuart Henderson wrote:
> > On 2018/08/05 20:53, Landry Breuil wrote:
> > > On Sun, Aug 05, 2018 at 11:22:07AM -0500, Ax0n wrote:
> > > > It looks like Mozilla is enabling these features by default for Firefox 
> > > > 62
> > > > after a controversial Shield Study earlier this year. These override 
> > > > one's
> > > > system DNS preferences by default, relying on 3rd parties (currently
> > > > CloudFlare) for DNS. These features seem like they could do more harm 
> > > > than
> > > > good for all but the most casual of browser users.
> > > > * Adds complexity to troubleshooting browser issues
> > > > * Creates a single point of failure
> > > > * Sends private data from browsing to a third party without consent
> > > 
> > > If you don't back your claims by actual trusted links about the matter
> > > (and not 'someone told it to me on IRC), this is pure FUD.
> > > 
> > > The 'Shield Study earlier this year' is
> > > https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1446404, which is over, and
> > > there will be a new Shield Study for another TRR mode, but that only
> > > targets nightly users:
> > > https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1475321
> > > 
> > > And by the way, Shield Studies are disabled for new profiles on OpenBSD
> > > since last december (unless the pref has changed in the meantime..),cf
> > > https://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb/ports/www/mozilla-firefox/files/all-openbsd.js?rev=1.4&content-type=text/x-cvsweb-markup
> > > 
> > > To make sure, check that app.normandy.enabled is false in your profile.
> > > 
> > > The TRR code *will* be complete on 62 for users to test it, but i'm not
> > > aware of any intention to turn it on by default, and i have my
> > > close-to-mozilla sources.
> > > 
> > > More links on the matter:
> > > https://wiki.mozilla.org/Trusted_Recursive_Resolver
> > > https://blog.nightly.mozilla.org/2018/06/01/improving-dns-privacy-in-firefox/
> > > https://www.ghacks.net/2018/03/20/firefox-dns-over-https-and-a-worrying-shield-study/
> > > 
> > > Right now, in beta (which will become 62) afaict TRR defaults to false:
> > > https://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-beta/source/modules/libpref/init/all.js#5260
> > > 
> > > > The "casual browser user" demographic likely has a very narrow if
> > > > nonexistent overlap with OpenBSD desktop/laptop users. Are there plans 
> > > > to
> > > > have these configuration settings disabled for the packaged versions of
> > > > Firefox in ports? If not, I would suggest at least adding a blurb about
> > > > these features to the install-message.
> > > 
> > > The 'OpenBSD power user' knows there are plenty of knobs to frob.
> > > There's no point in adding a blurb to the README (that actually *noone*
> > > reads) for each and every setting in the world...
> > > 
> > 
> > Nothing to see yet. But as it's a serious privacy compromise *if*
> > mozilla do eventually decide to send DNS data to a (US-based) third
> > party by default and it's left on in the package, that damn well should
> > be listed, and I think in MESSAGE not just README ;-)
> 
> I never said i had plans to let it on by default if mozilla was going to
> do so.
> 
> What ppl easily miss (because spreading FUD is easier) is that
> Cloudflare is used *for the experiment* *because they partnered with
> mozilla on the subject*, *with a specific privacy policy*, cf
> https://dnsprivacy.org/wiki/display/DP/DNS+Privacy+Public+Resolvers#DNSPrivacyPublicResolvers-DNS-over-HTTPS(DOH)

Being a natural cynic, I don't think a privacy policy is worth the
paper it's printed on, I'd rather not give said company the information
in the first place rather than rely on them honouring it.

> Everybody's going crazy about it, but it has never been said that
> CloudFlare was going to be the default for everyone. The current URL is
> empty, cf 
> https://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-beta/source/modules/libpref/init/all.js#5263
> 
> There are other servers per
> https://github.com/curl/curl/wiki/DNS-over-HTTPS and you can selfhost
> your own with https://github.com/jedisct1/rust-doh

They're adding it to curl as well? That's nuts! Surely this is
something to add to system resolvers rather than dozens of
applications? What a nightmare this is going to be to debug when
things go wrong.. "internal websites are broken but in X and Y
applications but not Z"? blerch.

> So no, im not planning to add a MESSAGE (that nobody reads) or a section
> to the README (that nobody reads).

If *nobody* reads it then it won't hurt to add. But actually some
people do care and do read this (though MESSAGE is a lot easier
for something which is actually important, because it's only
displayed when it changes, and there's no such mechanism for
README..)
>                                    If the defaults for network.trr.mode
> changes, i'll reset it to 0 or 5 in the default prefs so that it stays
> disabled.

great, thanks :)

> Landry
> 

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