uBlock Origin - WTF?

[Diggs]

I don't like the look of Ublock asking for new permissions. Hmmm.......

 

[glennd]

I don't like the look of Ublock asking for new permissions. Hmmm.......

View attachment 10665

I saw that. I couldn't decide what the implications are...

 

[mraikes]

Here's a pretty good explanation of the why. And it doesn't seem to be anything nefarious, nor particularly new except for Firefox:

https://www.ghacks.net/2019/03/27/why-ublock-origin-requests-to-store-unlimited-data-in-firefox/

 

[Diggs]

The article didn't say much other than bringing it inline with Chrome(?). It'd be curious what it is storing. Whitelist/blacklist? User choices?

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

the known ads list I would imagine

edit: filter lists

 

[nlinecomputers]

The article didn't say much other than bringing it inline with Chrome(?). It'd be curious what it is storing. Whitelist/blacklist? User choices?

the known ads list I would imagine

edit: filter lists

Yep. That is what it is storing. The data needed to do its job.

 

[mikeroq]

The article didn't say much other than bringing it inline with Chrome(?). It'd be curious what it is storing. Whitelist/blacklist? User choices?

Well they said that Firefox doesn't currently enforce a 5mb limit so they are just asking for more storage now before it gets enforced. That way when/if it gets changed everyone already has the permissions. The Chrome version has been like that from the start.

Note that the Chromium version of uBO has declared the unlimitedStorage permission since it was first published in 2014.

Firefox is not yet enforcing this permission, but I decided to add it anyways since Firefox states:

Only ask for "unlimitedStorage" permission if you expect your extension's local data storage to exceed 5MB if it's not going to exceed that amount, don't ask for it.

uBO is already using more than 5MB of storage in its basic configuration.

uBlock needs space to store all the lists, rules, and exceptions.

I wouldn't worry about that permission one bit. It's the only option. Chrome as well only allows 5mb of local storage. The only option to increase that is to use the unlimitedstorage permission.

 

[Diggs]

GitHub explained things a bit better -

"[1] uBO's cache storage is used to store filter lists, their compiled counterparts, and snapshots of various internal data structures for fast launch time)."

 

[Sky-Knight]

Yep, new permissions notice isn't due to busted plugin, just due to Firefox exerting potential control. If you don't enable it, the plugin might not work in the future.