Show HN: Beacon – a new open-source privacy and security-focused browser | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Beacon – a new open-source privacy and security-focused browser

impervious.com

47 pointsca98am7919 comments

I think the title needs to say “iOS” in there.

thanks, android and desktop versions coming soon!

I don't quite get what engine it's gonna use on android and desktop.

If it's yet another clone of chromium, then it's not really anything new.

Hi! My company Impervious released this browser today. It is the first browser with native DANE support, meaning zero-trust HTTPS/TLS for Handshake domains.

Can you share data on how much latency this adds to TTFB?

Something to consider in the future is implementing RFC9102[0] which is an experimental TLS extension for embedding the DNSSEC chain this should significantly improve TTFB. It'll still need to request the DS record/trust anchor from the p2p client.

[0] https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9102.html

This standard is DOA.

https://blog.apnic.net/2019/05/27/dns-oarc-30-bad-news-for-d...

An explainer:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20026572

yeah the initial standard was dropped by tls-wg. RFC9102 is more recent/an independent submission.

> 3. An attacker with a valid certificate can strip dnssec-chain-extension out of a TLS handshake.

That's true but decentralized namespaces are at least starting with a clean slate they could require this extension no CA is issuing names for those anyway.

For names that rely on WebPKI this standard could be less strict about pinning initially (treating DNSSEC as just another CA). Once there's more adoption in a few years browsers should look for it and fallback to querying the DNSSEC chain (could be included with an edns option RFC7901).

Browser vendors (notably Chromium) have already acknowledged that the best they'll be able to do is treat DANE like another CA, which leaves open the question of why they'd bother supporting a TLS extension that doesn't improve the status quo. It's not going to happen.

The "decentralized namespaces" stuff is interesting, because, of course, it gives away that game that a substantial amount of DNSSEC/DANE advocacy is coming from people speculating on a premined crypto-token that purports to replace the DNS, linking to it (after a fashion) with DANE. Also not going to happen (but if it does, I'm going to pre-mine an ARP coin, so I win either way).

Hm, how does this work with that iOS always run browsers using Safari webview?

Doesn't this need a native browser implementation for the handshake and p2p to be secure?

It uses WKNavigationDelegate[0] it allows responding to authentication challenges by accepting/rejecting certificates or continuing with default handling. This is used to do certificate pinning. DS records are stored on chain and requested via the P2P client. The DS record is used to verify DNSSEC and to obtain a certificate hash/TLSA record.

[0] https://developer.apple.com/documentation/webkit/wknavigatio...

Thanks for the explanation!

paging @tptacek (really hope there is more on DNSSEC in your upcoming SCW episodes because clearly the world needs it)

I was out the moment I read the project bets on DNSSEC/DANE (a bad idea because why would you put CA logic into DNS) on top of a terrible idea (Ethereum).

Seems like the link ought to point here: https://impervious.com/beacon

whoops, you are right - thanks! I will resubmit

"Handshake leverages a blockchain based on unspent transaction output (UTXO) and proof-of-work (PoW) similar to Bitcoin for naming capabilities." This means it intentionally wastes energy by design, which means its environmental impact is not acceptable, no matter what their FAQ says.

Saying that you can mine proof-of-work tokens with green energy is a red herring, since:

- Some miners are clearly re-establishing previously closed fossil fuel power plants to meet their energy needs: https://www.bostonherald.com/2021/10/17/bitcoin-miners-resur... We can argue about the frequency of this, but it is undeniably happening.

- It will be hard to establish the true amount of fossil fuels used, since miners steal power when they can: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/may/28/police-fi... See also the attacks on CI platforms to steal CPU cycles: https://drewdevault.com/2021/04/26/Cryptocurrency-is-a-disas...

- Installing green energy itself causes emissions: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/04/how-sustainable-is... That means there's a hard limit to how much green energy you can install without causing catastrophic warming. Well before that hard limit, you reach a point where the additional emissions created by installing green energy sources are more than they can pay off before deadlines like 2030 or 2050, which means they are serving as carbon sources rather than carbon sinks in the relevant timeframe. In other words, they are accelerating the climate crisis rather than slowing it down.

- Total energy use may matter more than the percentage of renewable energy, since if the absolute amount of fossil fuels increases the emissions from burning fossil fuels will increase: https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2009/11/renewable-energy-is-...

- The internet as currently designed may use too much energy, so switching to a system that uses even more energy by design is probably a bad idea: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2015/10/can-the-internet-r...

Yes I am obsessed with Low-Tech Magazine, but they have lots of citations and I could easily find less nerdy sources.

When do expect Desktop and Android versions? Thanks

so, it's a beacon, making _you_ a beacon, so advertisers can see you wherever you are?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_beacon

No. The nomenclature criticism on Show HN submissions is usually a stretch. A beacon helps you navigate or locate things, and that’s intuitive enough.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com