undefined | Better HN

0 pointsjohnebgd4y ago0 comments

Agreed. There are old drivers from established vendors that only send drivers over FTP links.

It's an edge case these days though as more are moving to https:// links so I can understand the browser vendors wanting to make the code base smaller. They have enough to do. Especially for Mozilla given what they charge for us to use their product.

0 comments

tyingq4y ago

Maybe nice if they (Mozilla and/or Google) would make a site somewhat like https://webftp.dreamhost.com/ that would accept url parameters to sort of proxy ftp requests.

Wouldn't help for internal network ftp servers, but would ease the publicly accessible part.

(Note that the dreamhost site has a little link icon in the lower left that will generate a link/landing page with all the important bits filled out.)

xg154y ago

Wouldn't make that security worse? Then any FTP connection would have to be proxied through a third-party, which has all opportunity to monitor or MITM the files. This in particular as FTP is often used to transfer non-public files.

Alternatively, Firefox could allow standalone clients to register for the ftp:// uri scheme (I think that's already possible) and, if no client is registered, redirect to some info page that explains the situation and offers links to standalone clients.

tyingq4y ago

Perhaps if it only supported anonymous ftp. That's most of the links that will get broken. For that, there is no real security consideration. What exists is plain text all around with deliberately exposed passwords.

1 more reply

antisol4y ago

>I can understand the browser vendors wanting to make the code base smaller.

That's an excellent point...

...So they'll be removing their builtin pdf viewer first then, right? That's a much much bigger chunk of code than an ftp client. Or are they both scheduled to be removed at the same time? I suppose that would be reasonable.

fomine34y ago

Mozilla did great decision for security: develop PDF viewer as pdf.js. It works same as other webapps so no longer considered to attack surface, not like integrated PDF viewer, IIUC.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

tyingq4y ago

Maybe nice if they (Mozilla and/or Google) would make a site somewhat like https://webftp.dreamhost.com/ that would accept url parameters to sort of proxy ftp requests.

Wouldn't help for internal network ftp servers, but would ease the publicly accessible part.

(Note that the dreamhost site has a little link icon in the lower left that will generate a link/landing page with all the important bits filled out.)

xg154y ago

tyingq4y ago

1 more reply

antisol4y ago

>I can understand the browser vendors wanting to make the code base smaller.

That's an excellent point...

fomine34y ago

Mozilla did great decision for security: develop PDF viewer as pdf.js. It works same as other webapps so no longer considered to attack surface, not like integrated PDF viewer, IIUC.

1 more reply

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse