Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

SoylentNews is powered by your submissions, so send in your scoop. Only 18 submissions in the queue.

Binary Blob Banished By Berated Browser's Better Build (Chromium)

posted by janrinok on Saturday June 27 2015, @09:01PM   Printer-friendly
from the did-not-want dept.

"gewg_" writes:

El Reg reports

New Chromium builds will no longer download/install the Hotword Shared Module and will automatically remove the module on startup if it was previously installed.

A closed-source and binary-only kernel module caused a fair fuss when it was found inveigling its way into the very much open-source Chromium.

Thanking the community for their attention and input on the issue, one of the project developers told the issues ticket thread that "as of the newly-landed r335874, Chromium builds, by default, will not download this module at all."

[...] An additional developer update regarding Hotword explains that "Builds of Google Chrome will still download this module by default. It will not be activated unless the user explicitly flips a preference to do so."

Related: Google Drops Binary Code into Chromium for Linux

Original Source

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Binary Blob Banished By Berated Browser's Better Build (Chromium) | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 34 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 27 2015, @10:12PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 27 2015, @10:12PM (#202242)

    > But if a binary blob can slip by unnoticed like that

    What do you mean unnoticed? People raised hell because it was noticed. This is the 2nd story about it here on soylent.

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +1  
       Insightful=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Insightful' Modifier   0  
    Total Score:   1  

  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday June 28 2015, @11:13AM

    by FatPhil (863) <{pc-soylent} {at} {asdf.fi}> on Sunday June 28 2015, @11:13AM (#202396) Homepage
    But how did it slip by at the computer level - how can a browser install a kernel module? Browsers should run as unprivileged users, and kernel modules should be installable only by the superuser. If that maxim's not followed - you're doing operating system wrong.
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 28 2015, @01:54PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 28 2015, @01:54PM (#202421)

      $> ./configure
      $> make
      $> sudo make install

      there, that was easy... what part of sudo do you not get?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2015, @04:19PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2015, @04:19PM (#202871)

      This isn't a kernel module binary blob, it's a binary blob component that is part of, and used exclusively and internally by, the browser program. Not an OS issue at all, simply an issue of what is contained in the browser code.