Option to Block Extension Updates
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Please, Vivaldi, add a feature so extensions can't be updated automatically.
This is a disaster (security breach) waiting to happen. Anyone that uses Vivaldi for critical data (or any other browser) usually has to give up extensions for security purposes. But why not let users have a middle ground?
Let us still have extensions but an option to turn automatic updates off. Not only this will be an excellent feature for metered connections (saving bandwidth), but it will also let power users update extensions manually. I like to do this and read the changelogs before. It is also a security feature because if the developers lost his extension and the attacker sends rogue updates, at least those with manual updates will be safe.
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I want to add here that I just noticed that this is something you can do surprisingly with Microsoft Edge on Windows. If you disable automatic updates from the MS Store, that also applies to Edge extensions.
This is seriously a cool feature. I would honestly love Vivaldi to have this. I want to update extensions manually. I don't want them upgrading in the background without my consent or knowledge.
Vivaldi can also then add this as one of their security features when it comes to marketing the browser.
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For now, I modified the JSON manifest on my extensions to block the Google update URL. But as I posted here, this would be a very nice feature that will boost Vivaldi's security. Edge relies on the Windows Store for extensions that you can set to manual updates.
Just so someone is aware. AGAIN, Chrome extensions have infected users. Just recently, here:
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/05/malicious-chrome-extensions-infect-more-than-100000-users-again/Those users would have been protected if they turned off auto updates on their extensions. Its more and more common for some extensions to do this. Either because the developer had his Google account compromised or he sold the extensions to an external party.
The other alternative is not using extensions entirely. There is no point in having a secure browser based on Chromium if you then have to be in constant fear for the extensions you use, most which can read all the data on websites you browse.
I also think this is rather easy to implement from Vivaldi's developer perspective.
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I would find it useful to be able to block updates on a per-extension basis.
E.g. I trust the EFF to update their extensions appropriately in the background.
But I don't trust random youtube extension 1057 to not become malware after an update. -
@lonm said in Option to Block Extension Updates:
I would find it useful to be able to block updates on a per-extension basis.
E.g. I trust the EFF to update their extensions appropriately in the background.
But I don't trust random youtube extension 1057 to not become malware after an update.That would be great. For now, I would be happy just to have a global ON/OFF button. So I can then hit it on. Let all extensions update, and then off again.
In the future, this should be per extension. So you can set the extensions you trust the most to be auto updated but update the rest manually.
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I just looked at the date on these posts.
This is another thing that should be a high priority that has been ignored for years.
I have recently been experiencing freezes in vivaldi (complete, browser needs to be restarted) and have traced the issue to background updates. I have the setting "Automatically check for and download updates" unchecked. One of two things are happening:
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Vivaldi is still checking for and downloading updates despite being told not to [BAD]
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There is a problem with an extension update and there is no way to disable it to check [BAD]
Either way this is pretty big problem. It was possible in older versions of chromium to disable updates via several different methods but these have been removed by google in recent versions e.g. vivaldi://plugins no longer exists.
Whether by patching in old code or re-enabling features that have been disabled or hidden this is a major issue that needs to be looked at ASAP
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It annoys me on principle alone when something updates itself. Not only can it be dangerous, but often the addon just stops working properly, because the new version is destroyed by its developers. It would be really cool to be able to stop updates with some switch on addons page.
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https://stackoverflow.com/questions/27657617/how-to-disable-google-chrome-extension-autoupdate/27657703#27657703
probably some of these solutions can be applied to Vivaldi too