Ramblings of an old Doc
Published on April 30, 2014 By DrJBHL In Personal Computing

 

Browsers are pretty important. You run your on line life through them, finances, etc. So, using a very secure browser is a pretty important thing, as you can imagine.

“Jeremiah Grossman and I have been publicly discussing browser security and privacy, or the lack thereof, for many years. We’ve shared the issues hundreds of times at conferences, in blog posts, on Twitter, in white papers, and in the press. As the adage goes, “If you’re not paying for something, you’re not the customer; you’re the product being sold.” Browsers are no different, and the major vendors (Google, Mozilla, Microsoft) simply don’t want to make the changes necessary to offer a satisfactorily secure and private browser.

Before I go any further, it’s important to understand that it’s NOT that the browser vendors (Google, Mozilla, and Microsoft) don’t grasp or appreciate what plagues their software. They understand the issues quite well. Most of the time they actually nod their heads and even agree with us! This naturally invites the question: “why aren’t the necessary changes made to fix things and protect people?”

The answer is simple. Browser vendors (Google, Mozilla, and Microsoft) choose not to make these changes because doing so would run the risk of hurting their market share and their ability to make money. You see, offering what we believe is a reasonably secure and privacy-protecting browser requires breaking the Web, even though it’s just a little and in ways few people would notice.” – Aviator Blog

OK, so it removes ads…so does Adblock (to some extent).

Aviator has been designed for folks who like their privacy. Here’s what it does in default mode:

  • Aviator is bundled with Disconnect to remove ads and tracking
  • Aviator is always in private mode
  • Each tab is sandboxed (a sandbox provides controls to help prevent one program from making changes to others, or to your environment)
  • We strip out referring URLs across domains to protect your privacy
  • Flash and Java are click-to-play – greatly reducing the risk of drive-by downloads
  • We block access to websites behind your firewall to prevent Intranet hacking

That’s pretty good.

Aviator will run on every Windows OS from (and including) Windows 98 through W8.1, as well as Mac OSX.

You can download it here: https://www.whitehatsec.com/aviator/

One thing, though…even white listing WC in the bundled “Disconnect” won’t enable commenting in Galleries (although it will in Forums). I wouldn’t suggest running IE Tabs extension because that enables IE to render pages and might (I’m not sure) make you vulnerable to the newest security flaw in IE –I just don’t know if enabling Protected Mode is enough to guarantee your security. The folks who discovered the IE vulnerability have said that disabling Flash is enough to prevent the remote code execution malware from getting on your computer, but I don’t know enough to say, one way or another.

Source:

https://blog.whitehatsec.com/introducing-whitehat-aviator-a-safer-web-browser/


Comments (Page 1)
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on Apr 30, 2014

So is this a total new browser or does it use an the 'guts' of an existing browser?  

EDIT:  Not working with WC is a deal breaker for me, unless SD is working to fix that.

on Apr 30, 2014

Uses Chrome engine and appearance with superior security (see OP features).

on Apr 30, 2014

A better name would be TinfoilHat.......

on Apr 30, 2014

Lets have a look.

Okay...got this after the install and trying for WC

 

on Apr 30, 2014

Wizard1956

A better name would be TinfoilHat.......

Based on?

on Apr 30, 2014

Running Aviator now. Seems okay. No problem commenting in forums. Gonna try skins comments. Nope...not working in skin comments.

on Apr 30, 2014


Running Aviator now. Seems okay. No problem commenting in forums. Gonna try skins comments. Nope...not working in skin comments.

 

One thing, though…even white listing WC in the bundled “Disconnect” won’t enable commenting in Galleries (although it will in Forums). I wouldn’t suggest running IE Tabs extension because that enables IE to render pages and might (I’m not sure) make you vulnerable to the newest security flaw in IE –I just don’t know if enabling Protected Mode is enough to guarantee your security. The folks who discovered the IE vulnerability have said that disabling Flash is enough to prevent the remote code execution malware from getting on your computer, but I don’t know enough to say, one way or another.

on Apr 30, 2014

Philly0381

So is this a total new browser or does it use an the 'guts' of an existing browser?

 

it is Chromium with different default settings and pre-installed extensions. basically you can configure Chrome to behave exactly the same in 5-10 minutes.

edit: plus some branding.

on Apr 30, 2014

Wanted to see anyway. Does do away with all the ads though but unlike Chrome it doesn't render the min max buttons. Only an impression of them though they still work.

on Apr 30, 2014


Wanted to see anyway. Does do away with all the ads though but unlike Chrome it doesn't render the min max buttons. Only an impression of them though they still work.

Not on mine, Uvah. It has them and the frame took the color of Eros (vStyler). The lines at the bottom belong to the wall I'm using.

The benefits of using it are obvious to anyone bothering to read the OP.

on Apr 30, 2014

I'm using Aviator now.  I can not comment on skins, but it looks like I can comment on here ( forums).  I was commenting on Sed's latest before I realized there were no emos or anything else just a blank area with submit under it. But it didn't submit what I wrote anyway. 

on Apr 30, 2014

BTW...I don't have the min max buttons either...  sorry Seth, didn't see in first skimming read that you stated that comments are not enabled in Aviator. My mistake. 

on Apr 30, 2014

No biggy, Barb. As you can see from my screeny, mine are quite visible. 

That's because I noticed the problem straight away.

I excluded Aviator.exe in WB. From then on, just fine.

That's probably because one can't skin Chrome.

on Apr 30, 2014

Excluded it in WB and now I got buttons back.

on Apr 30, 2014

If   "The answer is simple. Browser vendors (Google, Mozilla, and Microsoft) choose not to make these changes because doing so would run the risk of hurting their market share and their ability to make money. You see, offering what we believe is a reasonably secure and privacy-protecting browser requires breaking the Web, even though it’s just a little and in ways few people would notice.” – Aviator Blog "

then how does aviator make money?

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