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Re:Why does Google prepend while(1); to their JSON responses? by fixermark on Saturday May 06, 2017 @03:31PM (#14281839)
> You most certainly do not need to do the same.

... except that those browsers are still out there, so it depends heavily on how much damage someone can do by abusing the data your server can emit whether you need to do the same.

Re:Why does Google prepend while(1); to their JSON responses? by amenghra on Saturday May 06, 2017 @06:13PM (#14282544)
If you are browsing the web with a 10 year old browser you are opening yourself up to a ton of security bugs. Whether json responses contain a while loop or not isn't going to make a difference.

The reason Google and Facebook keep this kind of stuff around is because it's there and doesn't hurt to keep it. There's a slight chance it will provide some protection if a similar attack vector is discovered.

Re:Why does Google prepend while(1); to their JSON responses? by Roodgorf on Sunday May 07, 2017 @12:10AM (#14283799)
But aren't you saying this is an already existing attack vector then?? Why try to find a similar one if you knew you could just get an older browser version and use this one? Is that not a good enough reason to be prepared for it?
Re:Why does Google prepend while(1); to their JSON responses? by hcs on Sunday May 07, 2017 @12:38AM (#14283891)
As sagethesagesage said [1], you're protecting the user from having their browser pass the user's data from your site to a malicious site. The attacker shouldn't be able to make the user run an old, vulnerable browser.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14282532

Re:Why does Google prepend while(1); to their JSON responses? by sagethesagesage on Saturday May 06, 2017 @06:10PM (#14282532)
It's more that people who use those browsers are being protected. It's not that those browsers can poke security holes in the site, they're just vulnerable to losing their own data.