
Master of web puppets: abusing web browsers for persistent and stealthy - feross
https://blog.acolyer.org/2019/04/12/master-of-web-puppets-abusing-web-browsers-for-persistent-and-stealthy-computation/
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zimbatm
Service workers are a terrible mis-feature. Ask anybody and they won't know
that things can keep running in the background when tabs are closed. Even most
developers don't know about it.

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SquareWheel
That's great until you click "Send email" and close the tab. Then you expect
things to continue to work.

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cpeterso
The page could use an _onunload_ handler to ask the user if they really want
to close the tab before the email has been sent.

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SquareWheel
That's what happens now, but it's really not great UX.

Typically by the time the user reads the modal dialogue telling them not to
close the window, the email will be sent. The page then needs to make clear
"hey that thing we just said? You can ignore it now".

I appreciate the suggestion, but it's just a very confusing and disruptive
approach to solving the problem.

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talkingtab
PeriodicSync is not part of any specification according to MDN.

The article says: "This page installs a service worker (the Servant) when
loaded in the browser, and uses background sync registrations to keep the
Servant always alive."

Without periodicSync is this a realistic scenario?

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ycHatesFreeSpch
It doesn't make sense for service workers to need to keep running after I have
closed a tab. I then need them terminated for sure. No exceptions.

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EastSmith
Service workers are used to listen for events for browser notifications.

That's the only legitimate use I know for a service worker to be alive after
the tab is closed.

