Re:Adblock Plus filter lists may execute arbitrary code in w...
by hombre_fatal on Tuesday April 16, 2019 @02:22PM
(#19675999)
I think the limitation is just the simplest trade-off.
For example, an unbounded rule list has unbounded serial compilation time.
A 50k rule list recompiles in a couple seconds on my laptop and quite some time on my iPhone, but multiple rule lists can be compiled in parallel.
I suppose your response to this would be that content blocker recompilation could be made parallel over a single list or made to support incremental recompilation.
And you're probably right. But note that even Chrome's proposed content blocker system has the same limitation. Perhaps it's not as straightforward as it seems and it's not just a result of neglect/abandonment.
I mainly responded because the language you used seemed more damning than necessary. But have you tried 1Blocker X[1] which is built on the content blocker API? It's hard to condemn the content blocking system too much when there's an app that utilizes it to such great effect.
You are right about Apple/Webkit moving slowly on community feedback and bug reports though. I suppose I'm used to the glacial pace of non-critical-path browser issues after my Firefox bug went three years without response until it was fixed after Quantum's release. You are probably more critical here than I am. At Amazon, anything sev3 to sev5 went into a heap so large it was a miracle if anyone opened it again.
For example, an unbounded rule list has unbounded serial compilation time.
A 50k rule list recompiles in a couple seconds on my laptop and quite some time on my iPhone, but multiple rule lists can be compiled in parallel.
I suppose your response to this would be that content blocker recompilation could be made parallel over a single list or made to support incremental recompilation.
And you're probably right. But note that even Chrome's proposed content blocker system has the same limitation. Perhaps it's not as straightforward as it seems and it's not just a result of neglect/abandonment.
I mainly responded because the language you used seemed more damning than necessary. But have you tried 1Blocker X[1] which is built on the content blocker API? It's hard to condemn the content blocking system too much when there's an app that utilizes it to such great effect.
You are right about Apple/Webkit moving slowly on community feedback and bug reports though. I suppose I'm used to the glacial pace of non-critical-path browser issues after my Firefox bug went three years without response until it was fixed after Quantum's release. You are probably more critical here than I am. At Amazon, anything sev3 to sev5 went into a heap so large it was a miracle if anyone opened it again.
[1]: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/1blocker-x-adblock/id1365531...