Bonum Certa Men Certa

Managing NoScript Whitelists and Some Tor Browser Observations

Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer

One of the things that does bug me about using NoScript….



Is that is keeps the text file it exports in a different format with “modern” browsers.



So I can pass around one exported list by occasionally stomping the exported file with a fresh one with the latest permissions from LibreWolf and then pass it around to my other browsers that can use the WebExtension.



SeaMonkey, on the other hand, uses a “Classic” unsupported version of NoScript which uses a different list format.



So I end up maintaining a special version of the list, a second time, just for SeaMonkey.



I’m hoping that the upcoming update adds enough backported JavaScript and WebComponents work that more sites start behaving normally in SeaMonkey.



Having to pay my electric bill through another browser is a real bummer, and some sites like Walmart just look weird, although humorously, Walmart is currently bungled in Firefox to the point where you can’t schedule a grocery pickup time and checkout, but in SeaMonkey that works fine, but the site looks a little weird. So I can shop for food in SeaMonkey, but not Firefox.



I’d report a site compat bug to Mozilla, but I’d get the usual “Go to Hell, also CoC” Standard Reply assuming they even took any action on the bug report at all.



Even the modern version of NoScript does not appear to have a special button to disable WASMs.



I think you can stop them with blocking Object to Trusted Sites, but not sure about this, and it seems more destructive than surgically removing WASM with a preference.



I noticed while I was playing with the Tor Browser last night, that the “Safer” setting, starts disabling some features that aren’t widely used while just browsing the Web. It leaves JavaScript on (but only for HTTPS sites), but it starts disabling some of the crappy features that you often don’t need.



If you look at the monthly Mozilla security updates, a lot of them address High and Critical CVEs that WASM itself adds to the browser.



That’s why I set javascript.options.wasm to False in all my browsers in about:config, so even sites I allow to run JavaScript can’t load WASM blobs on me.



I just want to pay my phone bill, not risk having executables sent down the hatch.



It seems the Tor Project agrees that WASMs are a special danger that adds a significant amount of attack surface to the browser, beyond what JavaScript alone is capable of, and it’s not really that important.



So I’ve set my copy of the Tor Browser to the safer setting. It’s not what I’d like (static content Web sites), but it’s probably the best you can do and have the Web as it is work at all.



They should move the slider closer to the user interface so the user can dial it up and down faster, and set it to Safest if they want to run silent, run deep for a while, and not take chances on scripts and stuff on .onion sites.



Best practices for .onion sites are to remain accessible to users who can only look at static content.



The way that people typically get unmasked on Tor is partially “active content” being on in the browser, and partially that the police will set up a site that requires logging in.



Then the court issues a broad warrant that authorizes a “Network Investigative Technique” or a NIT, which is just fancy talk for “You are authorized to attack every user who sets up an account and attempt to plant malware on the machine.”



Basically, interacting with a site like this adds you to the warrant’s scope, so sites that require logging in are a big red flag that “there’s a reason why”.



So the issue of Tor unmaskings are part technical and part legal.



In most cases, it’s a two-part thing where the user hands them both parts.



Unfortunately, Tor Browser is set by default to have almost all the same vulnerabilities as Mozilla Firefox.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Mass Layoffs at IBM, But Mostly in Secret (PIPs and 'Voluntary' Redundancies)
Gerstner laid off a record number of people; Krishna tries to find 'innovative' new ways to cause workers to leave
 
SLAPP Censorship - Part 158 Out of 200: Making Alliances With Men Arrested for Strangling Women Was Always a Terrible Strategy
They work for American slop companies
Links 22/08/2026: TikTok Settles With Feds, Harms Caused by Social Control Media Gaining Attention
Links for the day
New Data Shows Microsoft's XBox is Really Dying
XBox is a "burning platform"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, August 21, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, August 21, 2026
Sources-First Publication
Thank you for keeping us on track
Ubuntu is Not Linux
I was one of the first users of Ubuntu
Links 21/08/2026: Outrage Over Politicians Who Support Slop-Feeding Data Centres, "America Is About to Get More Expensive"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/08/2026: Rain Coming Back and "Small Internet"
Links for the day
Slop-ware: Nobody Knows What Code Goes Into Linux and Most Developers Cannot Understand the Rust Code (Even If They Tried)
So nobody is in charge
The Slop Pyramid Scheme (Not Boon!) Isn't Good for GNU/Linux, Even If the Plagiarism Engines (Framed as "Training" or "Intelligence") Almost Always Run GNU/Linux
We need the slop pop - we need the bubble to pop
North America: GNU/Linux Measured at 13%-15% Every Night
many (north) Americans use GNU/Linux at home and are using it to access the Web in the small hours of the morning
Links 21/08/2026: "Silicon Valley’s Billionaire Cults Are Coming for Democracy" and "Who’s Raking it in as the National Debt Explodes?"
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 157 Out of 200: What is a 'Defamation Troll'?
"Defamation Mill" also
Northern Europe Leads the Pack in Abandoning Windows After Threats Made to Greenland (Says Clownflare Data)
Clownflare has a vast trove of data, so it cannot be easily dismissed as pure nonsense
Clownflare: In Past 12 Months Microsoft Windows Fell From ~80% to ~75% on Desktops/Laptops in Asia
Microsoft is deep in debt
Secret Layoffs at Microsoft, Apparently More Sites Will Shut Down Entirely
vindicates us and serves to affirm what we've said for over a month
The State of Slopfarms About "Linux" in August 2026
The Web needs serious cleanup, which curation can help deliver
IBM Offers Workers Some Money to Fire Themselves, It's Called "Next Step" and It's Allegedly 'Extended' (Not Enough Fools Have Fired Themselves)
Will IBM executives - including the CEO - ever be held accountable?
£5 Million Unsolicited/Undisclosed Bribes and What That Means to British Politics
It still remains unknown (disclosure denied) who helps fund the £1 million lawfare against us
[Satire] Pocock, Binface & nobodies vs Farage: defamation before UK High Court
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The IBM Censorship Team, PIPs (Silent Layoffs) in IBM Europe
There seem to be many de facto layoffs going on at IBM right there
SLAPP Censorship - Part 156 Out of 200: Brett Wilson LLP Becoming Wilson FC
Now acting almost like one-person shop (lots of staff has fled this past year)
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 20, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, August 20, 2026
Gemini Links 21/08/2026: "Ensmallening the BigWeb", "Rust Dependencies"
Links for the day
Links 20/08/2026: 'Linux' Foundation Promoting Slop Hype for Money (Hype as a Service), Malaysia’s Exports Jump 38% Year-on-Year
Links for the day
Gemini Links 20/08/2026: A "Break From Routine" and "Modem Was the Problem"
Links for the day
Clownflare Reckons GNU/Linux is on Almost 1 in 10 Laptops/Desktops in Western Europe
Western Europe and China are leaving more of GAFAM behind them
Looking Ahead at September
Rianne and I look forward to a productive September
Links 20/08/2026: Facebook "Ran Ads for an App That Promised to Nudify Female Politicians" and Facebook Faces "Social [Control] Media Addiction Trial"
Links for the day
Clownflare Sees GNU/Linux at 16% Market Share on Desktops/Laptops in Tajikistan
in Tajikistan it seems like adoption of GNU/Linux is exceptionally high, based on a very large data set associated with Web access
The Demise of Social Control Media Continues
Entering (anew) social control media in 2026 seems foolish
SLAPP Censorship - Part 155 Out of 200: Throwing Stones in Houses Made of Glass
character-assassination-as-a-service
Gemini Links 20/08/2026: Planners, Pantsing, Vinylyssee
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 19, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 19, 2026