
Opera now protects you from cryptojacking attacks - lainon
https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/03/opera-now-protects-you-from-cryptojacking-attacks/
======
B-Con
Opera blog post: [https://blogs.opera.com/desktop/2017/12/opera-50-beta-rc-
cry...](https://blogs.opera.com/desktop/2017/12/opera-50-beta-rc-
cryptocurrency-mining-protection/)

> After we recently updated the rules for our built-in ad blocker mechanism,
> we eliminated cryptocurrency mining scripts that overuse your device’s
> computing ability. Simply enable Opera’s ad blocker to prevent
> cryptocurrency mining sites from doing their dirty work on your computer.

Looks like a blacklist extension to their ad blocker.

~~~
kodablah
This isn't going to work I suspect. Ad blockers work because ad companies are
too lazy to make appliances/software to embed their ad packages as first party
entities. This is exacerbated by the need for third party cookie access.
Utilizing client CPU for mining doesn't need that. They can simply embed the
JS script (which presumably would have the WASM binary embedded) and go. At
least that's how I would do it if I were nefarious. And I'd add significant
randomness to prevent pattern matching, but ad blockers are stupid primitive
css selector or URL matchers anyways.

~~~
Momquist
I feel whitelisting JS is becoming the sanest approach, despite all its
shortcomings.

~~~
shostack
Is there anything comparable to NoScript that works in Firefox Quantum?

~~~
KwanEsq
NoScript[1] works pretty well.

[1]
[https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/noscript/](https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/noscript/)

~~~
shostack
Huh...for some reason I thought it was not compatible. Ugh, now the only thing
holding me back from upgrading is some of my other addons. I hate having to
wait forever to upgrade because I use some less popular addons with long
update cycles.

~~~
Sylos
It used to not be compatible until a few weeks after the release of Firefox
Quantum.

It's also been completely rewritten, so it's not the same NoScript that you
know. The new UI definitely takes some getting used to and the dev is still in
the process of polishing the new UI. And it's also still missing some features
compared to the old version, which the NoScript dev wants to have ready for
the next LTS release of Firefox (which is going to be Firefox 60), as that's
what Tor Browser will be based on, which needs NoScript. On the other hand,
the new version has significantly better performance and also works on
Android.

~~~
shostack
Any major features missing?

~~~
Sylos
I think, ClearClick and ABE are still missing. (According to this post [1]
from a few weeks ago, they're supposed to be coming in the next few weeks...)

Or well, active content blocking and XSS protection are definitely in there.

[1]: [https://hackademix.net/2017/11/21/noscript-1011-quantum-
powe...](https://hackademix.net/2017/11/21/noscript-1011-quantum-powerball-
finish-and-rebooting/)

------
supermdguy
Hopefully they add an option to enable it for specific sites. I think mining
scripts are a great way to monetize online content. I'd much rather give away
some compute time than watch ads (which I'm just going to block anyways).

------
nuclearchicken
Set up a Pi-hole and your entire network is protected from this dreck. The
beauty of the Pi-hole approach is that you can add more blacklists on the fly
and every device on the network benefits. People are actually starting to spin
up Pi-hole servers at work to block this stuff.

I have one running at home and it makes a noticeable difference in my network
performance. Highly recommended.

------
paulryanrogers
Didn't say 'how'. I'm curious if the blacklisting approach will scale

------
arisAlexis
bummer. I prefer to mine crypto than to see ads

~~~
clouddrover
It's optional. It can be turned off if you want it off:

[https://blogs.opera.com/desktop/2017/12/opera-50-beta-rc-
cry...](https://blogs.opera.com/desktop/2017/12/opera-50-beta-rc-
cryptocurrency-mining-protection/)

------
dimonomid
Good to know!

Opera is an awesome browser which very few people use. I do though.

~~~
CapacitorSet
>Opera is an awesome browser which very few people use.

I thought well of it, until it got acquired by the Chinese. How has it been
since?

~~~
liquidise
I moved to Opera a few years ago because it performed better than other
browsers when kept open for weeks on end. Its ram usage would often clock in
at multiple gigabytes less than chrome or firefox over the same time frame
even when keeping < 10 tabs open. It allows total customization of keyboard
shortcuts and has been an excellent experience. Their iOS version has a built
in ad-blocker which prompted me to switch on my phone as well.

Just this week i swapped to Firefix quantum to test the waters here. My
initial reactions are fairly muted. It is almost an identical experience given
my browsing and development habits. If anything, i would say i still prefer
the speed of Opera's (well, Blink's) dev tools.

~~~
craftyguy
> Its ram usage would often clock in at multiple gigabytes less than chrome or
> firefox

Well that's funny, because Opera is based on the Blink engine (which
chrome/chromium use as well.), so the memory usage should be very close to the
same as Chrome.

------
SN76477
I don't care for Opera, but they are agile.

~~~
rando444
I'm particularly impressed that they added a free VPN solution to their
browser.

I'm not speaking to the trust or security of this specifically, but the fact
that they're offering it built-in to the browser already shows an interesting
and unique approach to out-of-the-box web browsers.

------
nkkollaw
I don't get it. Opera keeps being first at everything, yet they seem to fail
to get any meaningful browser share (worldwide).

So sad.

~~~
clouddrover
In this case they're not the first. They're using this block list:

[https://github.com/hoshsadiq/adblock-nocoin-
list](https://github.com/hoshsadiq/adblock-nocoin-list)

Which was already being used by Brave. You can add the same list to your
browser's blocker yourself.

If you're using uBlock Origin be aware that by default it includes a Resource
Abuse block list which contains many of the same entries as the NoCoin list,
so there may be no real advantage in adding the NoCoin list. You'd have to
check all the entries in both lists to see if you're gaining anything by it.

~~~
ChrisGranger
As of this writing, my uBlock Origin set-up is still making use of 18 of the
NoCoin list's 73 filters, so it probably is worth installing if you're
concerned about this sort of thing.

------
nxsynonym
Good move by Opera. Really hoping FF/Chrome adopt the extensions as standard
features soon.

------
guskel
No way to ask for permission or turn the blocking off?

