Chrome Connecting To Random Domains On Start? Here Is Why!

If you are monitoring your network traffic closely you may have noticed that the Google Chrome web browser and its Open Source counterpart Chromium are both trying to connect to three random ten letter words on start up. For most users, it is not clear why the browser is making those connections, and some have even assumed that they were either made to send information privately to Google, for tracking purposes, or even caused by malware running on the system.

Mike West analyzed the part of the browser’s source code that was responsible for making the connections. He discovered that Chrome and Chromium are making those connections to help the browser’s Omnibox figure out user intents correctly.

The issue that Google aims to fix with these connections is easily explained. Some Internet Service Providers have started to intercept requests that do not resolve properly. If you enter ghacks for instance in the address bar and tap on the return key afterwards, Chrome needs to figure out if you want to search for the term ghacks, or if you want to visit the site http://ghacks/. Since it cannot do that, it displays an infobar if the word would resolve to an existing domain name giving the user the chance to open the domain with another click.

When ISPs intercept the lookups to display their own error pages, usually filled with advertisement and search options, then it appears to the browser as if the word would resolve just fine. This in turn would mean that users would see the infobox in the browser even for words that do not resolve.

To prevent this, Google is making these three initial lookups on start up to see if ISPs intercept requests that cannot be resolved. It compares the IP addresses of the pages that are returned, and turns the infobox off if they are identical (as this suggests an ISP is intercepting the look ups).

How can you find out if Chrome or Chromium are making those requests? You can use programs that monitor traffic on the system. One example would be the free tool Fiddler which can show you the connections the browser makes.

The three random connections are highlighted in the screenshot above.

The three connections are nothing that users need to worry about. Thanks Mike for finding that out for us.

Hide Offline Contacts From Facebook Chat

Facebook fairly recently made a change to Facebook Chat that is irritating many users of the site. The chat interface, displayed in the lower right corner of the screen is now not only listing contacts who are online, but also those who are not. To make matters worse, online and offline friends are mixed in the listing. The only way to identify online contacts is the green icon next to the contact’s name.

It is not really clear why offline contacts are displayed next to online contacts there. While it is possible to send messages to offline chat partners, it is probably not something that a lot of Facebook users would want to do, as they could use the site’s messaging options instead for that.

Messages send to offline chat partners are displayed to them the next time they come online. Some Facebook users may prefer to hide offline chat partners from Facebook Chat to increase the visibility of the feature.

The following extensions and scripts let you hide all offline contacts from Facebook’s Chat window.

Firefox add-on: Tidy Facebook Chat

This add-on for the Firefox browser hides all Facebook contacts who are currently offline from the friend’s listing in the sidebar.

Google Chrome: Facebook Chat Fix

This add-on shows only online friends on Facebook in the chat bar. It furthermore hides the mini news-feed that you see on the site as well.

Userscript (Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera): Facebook Old Chat Sidebar

This one is the most sophisticated option of them all. It returns Facebook to the old chat interface. It hides offline friends, so that only online and idle friends are shown, orders friends by first name, displays the total number of online friends and groups friends by status.

That’s not all though. It automatically adjusts the size of the chat bar and makes the chat bar stick to top.

The userscript is probably the best choice as it offers more customizations and options than the browser extensions.

Encrypt Facebook Group Communication With Encrypt Facebook

Social networking sites may use the contents that you post on their sites in a variety of ways. They may sell them to advertisers, use them to personalize advertising on their sites, may report them to local authorities or ban your account.

Encrypt Facebook is a new Google Chrome extension that offers an ingenious way out for users who want to communicate on Facebook privately. The idea is simple: All messages are posted in encrypted form on the site, and saved as thus in the Facebook database. Facebook cannot read the contents, and the same is true for third parties requesting access to the contents.

The setup process is divided into three steps:

• Create a Facebook group or use an existing one
• Install the Google Chrome extension, and configure it
• Create a security key that is used to encrypt and decrypt the contents that get posted.

The biggest hurdle to setting this up correctly is getting the security key to all participants. Only those with the correct key can read the encrypted data on Facebook, and can post protected contents on the site that are readable by others.

You need to click on the extension’s icon in the address bar to set it up correctly. Here you are asked to enter the Facebook Group page url and the encryption key.

Once done, you can write posts or reply as usual on that group page. Your contents are automatically encrypted whenever you finish writing the message. A click on post adds the message to the site

Group users visiting the page with the extension and correct encryption key installed will see all messages in decrypted form. Everyone else with access sees only the encrypted messages.

The extension uses an AES 256 key to encrypt the messages. The key is stored locally.

The extension has primarily been created for users in oppressive or corrupt governments to allow citizens to communicate freely without fear of repercussion.

Two issues need to be mentioned. It first needs to be noted that the key is posted in plain text on the local system. Anyone with access will be able to access the group messages as well, provided that the group is known and accessible.

Facebook may also notice the garbled contents on their site and put an end to it when they discover it.

Chrome users can download the extension from the official Chrome Web Store.

CNET Download.com NoBadware, Bypasses Cnet Installer Downloads

We were one of the first sites to report that Cnet.com was replacing direct download links on their site with downloads pointing to a Cnet software Installer. This installer, according to Cnet, has been designed to deliver the requested downloads more securely to the client’s computer. The installer at the same time was used to push third party software programs, which many would call adware, to the computers of unsuspecting users. To make matters worse, users had to opt-out of the installation of toolbars and other software that more often than not changed the user’s homepage and search engine among other things.

The web installer caused other issues as well. Users who wanted to install the program on a system without permanent Internet connection ran into troubles as the Cnet installer required a web connection to deliver the program to the user PC.

Cnet has been criticized heavily for this practice, and some software developers as a consequence have pulled their applications from the site. Others requested to remove the web installer from the program’s distribution channel. Cnet as well seems to have removed the installer from some applications.

CNET Download.com – NoBadware: Direct Download Links is a userscript that skips Cnet’s web downloader when downloading files from the download portal. It automatically replaces all links pointing to Cnet’s secure downloader with direct software links, even for users who are not logged in or registered at the site.

The script indicates the change on the site by adding a small notification below the Download Now link on each program’s download page.

This way it is immediately clear if the download button points to the Cnet installer or the original file that was requested by the user. A click on the button opens the “your download will begin in a moment page” where the originally file is then offered for download.

The userscript has been tested in Firefox and Google Chrome, and it worked in both browsers exactly as advertised. Firefox users need to install Greasemonkey or Scriptish before they can install the userscript in their browser. The userscript may work in other browsers as well.

All in all an excellent script for users who sometimes download software from download.cnet.com and prefer direct downloads. (thanks Vineeth Reedy)

YouTube Center Adds All The Missing Features To YouTube

There are quite a few things that you cannot do on YouTube due to lack of controls. It is for instance not possible to repeat videos automatically or stop videos from automatically playing if you load it on the video hosting site. Most of the annoyances and missing features on YouTube become available through add-ons or userscripts that you can install in the web browser. Some target a specific feature like the ability to download videos from YouTube, others add a bunch of features to the site.

YouTube Center is one of those scripts that add a lot of features to YouTube. It does that in a way that is not overloading the site or changing it significantly.

Google Chrome users can install the userscript right away, while Firefox users need to have the Greasemonkey or Scriptish add-ons installed before they can do the same. There is no mentioning of support for other browsers.

Once you have installed the userscript in your browser, you will notice a new small toolbar attached to the bottom of videos on YouTube.

The three buttons Settings, Repeat and Download are displayed by default. A click on Settings opens the configuration menu where you can make the following changes:

• Enable Auto Resolution – Select a preferred video resolution that videos will be played in if available.
• Enable Download button – Options to set a preferred download quality and format. The down arrow next to the download button lists all available qualities for download.
• Enable Repeat button – Displays the repeat button to automatically repeat videos for as long as you stay on the page. Repeat can be automatically activated in the settings.
• Enable Shortcuts on Page – Enable shortcuts on all of the page, including abilities to go to a specific video position with the 0-9 keys, space to pause the video or left and right arrow to go back and forward ten seconds.
• Prevent Auto-Play and Auto-Buffering – Stops videos before they start to buffer or play automatically.
• Download mp3 – Option to download the audio of videos to the mp3 format.

YouTube Center is a useful userscript for YouTube regularly who wish they had more control on the site.

Chrome Web Store Gets Subcategories, But Not For Extensions

When you compare the Chrome Web Store to the Mozilla Add-ons Repository, you will notice that the former offers little sorting and customization options. Up until now you saw a list of recommended apps and extensions on the front page, with options to change the listing to popular items instead of display apps or extensions in one of the broad categories listed on the page.

The store offered no sorting options by release date, rating or update day which makes it a lot harder to find new and exciting extensions and apps in the store.

Another issue was the fact that developers and companies could add their apps to two different categories, so that users would find duplicate listings in the store.

Google today announced a change to the Chrome Web Store that is changing some of the issues for the better. The store now lists apps only in the primary category, and ignores the secondary category listing, which should reduce the number of dupes to zero in the store.

Google furthermore has added subcategories to all primary app categories in the store. The Education category now for instance lists Academic Resources, Family, Foreign Languages and Teacher & Admin Tools as subcategories.

The Business Tools app category has been added along with its four subcategories, and the Shopping category has been moved to become a subcategory of the Lifestyle category.

Google hopes that the new system will improve app discoverability in the store. Google plans to introduce new subcategories once enough apps are available to fill it in the store.

Extensions on the other hand have not received the same treatment. They are still lumped together in 12 categories without any serious sorting or filtering options. The Social & Communication apps listing for instance now includes five subcategories, while the same named extension category none.

Google in my personal opinion should consider adding filtering and sorting options both to extensions and apps listed in the Chrome Web Store. There is simply no reason not to display a list of newly added apps or extensions in the store for instance.

What’s your take on the store?

How To Turn Chrome or Firefox Into A Single-Site Browser

A Single-Site browser serves a very specific purpose. You use it to access one, and sometimes a handful, of websites and services on the Internet. This can be financial sites, your email accounts or other sites with personal information like a medical related sites. The basic idea is to block access to all other sites to protect the account and information from certain attack forms like cross site scripting or clickjacking.

All connections are blocked except to those sites that you have explicitly allowed. This means that third party scripts won’t be loaded if they originate on a non-whitelisted domain, and that you won’t be able to open third party sites manually in the browser.

This guide demonstrates how to turn Firefox and Google Chrome into a single-site browser. Inspiration has been taken from Vasa’s post over at the Wilders Security Forum.

Google Chrome

Google Chrome users can make use of the –host-rules parameter to block all domain connections except the ones they whitelist. The general parameter looks like this:

--host-rules="MAP * 127.0.0.1, EXCLUDE *.ghacks.net"

This redirects all connection attempts to localhost, except for connections to the ghacks.net site or one of its subdomains.

You can also add multiple inclusions in the following way:

--host-rules="MAP * 127.0.0.1, EXCLUDE *.ghacks.net","MAP * 127.0.0.1, EXCLUDE *.microsoft.com"

Windows users can add the parameter to Chrome in the following way:

• Locate a Chrome shortcut in the Start Menu, Taskbar or Desktop
• Right-click the shortcut and select Properties
• Append the parameter to the end of the Target listing, with a space in between.
• Click Ok to apply the settings.

You could alternatively create a second shortcut to use it for accessing your important sites, and keep the general shortcut for all other sites that you visit in the browser.

Firefox

Mozilla Firefox users need to install the SimpleBlock extension for their browser first. They then need to create a SimpleBlock.ini file in the user profile folder and add a regular expression to it to allow access to certain sites.

R: https?://(?!(My.bank.com|Second.site.com|Third.site.com))

This would allow access to the three domains mentioned above, and block all other connection attempts.

It is probably best to create a new user profile for this. You can use an add-on like Switchy or the new Firefox profile manager application.

Closing Words

It is best to create new profiles or shortcuts to work with Single-Site browsers. Security add-ons like NoScript can mitigate the issues if they are configured properly.