AstroSkipper

This thread is about different proxies to establish secure connections to servers or, more generally, to the internet. You often read about TLS and cipher suites here. Therefore, I have written a short article on these "termini technici" for those who do not know exactly what is meant by them. The TLS protocols and their cipher suites If you research the term TLS on the internet, you will get a lot of information, sometimes very simply presented, sometimes very technical, more for IT experts. With this small article, which can be seen more as a summary, I try to provide a little more transparency in this stuff. Transport Layer Security, abbreviated TLS, is a protocol for the authentication and encryption of Internet connections. For this purpose, TLS is inserted as its own layer between TCP and the protocols of the application layer. Here is a linked graphic to make it more clear: The individual tasks include authentication, certification, key exchange, integrity assurance and encryption. The main tasks are to guarantee the authenticity of the contacted remote stations, in most cases a server, by means of a certificate and to encrypt the connection between the remote stations. Here is a second linked graphic to demonstrate the actions and reactions in the communication between a client and a server: The used protocol defines the basic communication for the connection and is as crucial for a secure connection as the encryption protocol itself. Due to a series of vulnerabilities, the SSL2 and SSL3 protocols must be considered a security vulnerability and should be avoided at all costs. The successor to SSL3, TLS 1.0 should also be avoided, as the protocol offers a method to downgrade an established TLS 1.0 connection to SSL3. Thus, the connection is again vulnerable to the vulnerabilities that affect SSL3. Unfortunately, its successor TLS 1.1 is also no longer up to date and should be rather avoided nowadays. For a long time, the TLS 1.2 protocol was considered secure and therefore recommended. It offers a number of improvements that should ensure the security of connections again. In general, each new SSL or TLS version has brought additional features and options, making configuration a little more confusing, implementation more error-prone and handling more tedious. Overall, the use of TLS has become more insecure. With TLS 1.3, this should change, at best. Or, this was and is the actual goal, at least. For this reason, every single function of TLS has been tested for its security benefits and risks. In the process of development and in regard to the present knowledge, some parts were removed that no longer offer security and some of which are now also considered insecure. At the same time, security was improved with new procedures. Furthermore, measures for performance optimisation and preventive hardening measures for future attacks were taken into account. TLS 1.3 breaks backwards compatibility for the first time, which unfortunately causes some problems in practice. Connections with TLS 1.3 can be interrupted either because the connection is not accepted en route or due to a defective web server. Anyway, the protocols TLS 1.2 and, above all, TLS 1.3 are recommended as secure protocols nowadays. Here is a list of typical protocols and their cipher suites used by the TLS 1.3 proxy of my current program package ProxHTTPSProxy's PopMenu TLS 1.3 3V3 as an example. It's a screenshot taken from the website https://browserleaks.com/ssl: In the screenshot above, you can see many so called cipher suites belonging to specific TLS protocols. A cipher suite is a standardised collection of cryptographic procedures (algorithms) for encryption. In the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol, the cipher suite specifies which algorithms are to be used to establish a secure data connection. A cipher suite is generally displayed as a long string of seemingly random information, but each segment of that string contains essential information. Generally, this data string is made up of several key components: The used protocol, in most cases TLS. The key exchange algorithm dictates the manner by which symmetric keys will be exchanged such as RSA, DH, DHE, ECDH, ECDHE. The authentication algorithm dictates how server authentication and (if needed) client authentication will be carried out such as RSA, DSA, ECDSA. The bulk encryption algorithm dictates which symmetric key algorithm will be used to encrypt the actual data such as AES, 3DES, CAMELLIA. The Message Authentication Code (MAC) algorithm dictates the method the connection will use to carry out data integrity checks such as SHA, SHA256, MD5. In some cases, there is an Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) which is an encryption technique that provides public-key encryption similar to RSA. While the security strength of RSA is based on very large prime numbers, ECC uses the mathematical theory of elliptic curves and achieves the same security level with much smaller keys. Here are three linked graphics to illustrate this with examples: This article will also be part of my main article in the first post of this thread as soon as possible so that everyone is well informed about the technical background and the purpose of TLS and their cipher suites which are important for our proxies. Greetings from Germany, AstroSkipper.

You're very welcome! I wish you all the good things one can wish a human being, and that we hear from you again very soon. Take good care of yourself and come back unharmed! Greetings from Germany, AstroSkipper

Hello @D.Draker! Absorbing Frisian energy! Absolutely great! I am so glad to hear about your progress in healing. Becoming invincible is very important and gives us hope that you will come home unscathed next time. Greetings from a Frisian! Your AstroSkipper

Hello @nicolaasjan! Glad to hear that it works for you! I had to read a bit in the CSS reference to understand how positioning exactly works. It was a good thing that I had dealt with CSS a bit more intensively a few weeks ago. Anyway, this is a solution I prefer instead of manually resizing the browser's window. Cheers, AstroSkipper

Hello @NotHereToPlayGames! We were right! It has been a CSS issue. Not really a problem of height/width but rather one of position/distance. Anyway, thanks for your reply and opinion! Cheers, AstroSkipper

Confirmed! Any change in the size of the window recovers the menu items. Same applies to any change in the font of the dashboard page. But this is certainly not a satisfactory solution, of course. The problem must have to do with a change in the browsers, either in the current or in an earlier release. Some weeks ago, everything was fine. Maybe, our browser experts have an idea. I do not have one at the moment. I've modified the xpi file, and now, the issue seems to have been solved. I do hope so, at least. Here is the link of uBlock Origin Legacy 1.16.4.30 modified by me: https://msfn.org/board/topic/183923-extensions-and-custom-buttons-for-uxp-browsers-corrections-modifications-adjustments-and-special-recommendations/?do=findComment&comment=1226247 Cheers, AstroSkipper

I already had a look into the file dashboard.css inside uBlock's xpi file but no success until now.

Confirmed! Any change in the size of the window recovers the menu items. Same applies to any change in the font of the dashboard page. But this is certainly not a satisfactory solution, of course. The problem must have to do with a change in the browsers, either in the current or in an earlier release. Some weeks ago, everything was fine. Maybe, our browser experts have an idea. I do not have one at the moment.

Hello @roytam1, @VistaLover and @Mathwiz! Did anyone of you already notice that the UI of uBlock Origin's dashboard page is broken in the latest version of New Moon 28 (2022-09-02)? The menu items at the top of the dashboard page are compressed and no longer visible. However, you can still click on them with the mouse. I refer to the last legacy version of uBlock Origin, 1.16.4.30. In a previous version of New Moon 28, everything was fine (I didn't check in which version this issue occurred first). Tested also with a clean profile. Here is a screenshot of this issue: Since no new updates or versions have been released from JustOff for over a year, I'm afraid that not much will happen if reporting this issue on GitHub. To find out the reason for this glitch, I took a screenshot of the error console when the dashboard page of uBlock is loaded: BTW, same issue with Serpent v52.9.0 (2022-09-02) (32-bit). uBlock Origin is in my opinion definitely the most important extension besides palefill we need for our UXP browser. Hope this can be fixed! Cheers, AstroSkipper

My cat is a black one. She is more than 20 years old. She is a full member of our family and is loved more than anything else.

Thank you for this nice picture! I love it!

Hello to all fans of roytam1's browsers! Some time ago I was asked if I knew a way to install a button in New Moon 28 that lists and makes available all about pages like the one I presented in my thread "Mypal 68 in Windows XP - Custom Buttons and Extensions" for the browser Mypal 68. Meant was the custom button aboutbutton. Link: I totally forgot that here is a perfect way to do this. The solution is to install the extension Toolbar Buttons 1.1.1. Link: http://caa:addon/toolbar-buttons Of course, to use this link you must have installed the extension Classic Add-ons Archive. Link: https://github.com/JustOff/ca-archive/ The genius of Toolbar Buttons is that with a single extension you get an incredible number of buttons to extend the functionality of our UXP browsers. I use a lot of them. Here is a quotation from the developer's description: Anyway, one of these 100 buttons is called about:about. With this button, you have full access to all about pages in your browser. I use this extension and many of their provided toolbar buttons in all compatible browsers from the very first time. Especially the buttons Clear Data, Clear Cache and Restart. Maybe, a few of the other provided buttons do not work properly anymore, but most of them do. The buttons have to be installed by the toolbar's item "Customize" via drag and drop. Tested in New Moon 28 and Serpent 52. Have fun with this! Cheers, AstroSkipper

uMatrix uMatrix is a content blocker at its best. Point & click to forbid/allow any class of requests made by your browser. Use it to block scripts, iframes, ads, facebook, etc. Tested version: 1.4.4 Here is the wiki: https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix/wiki And the following link opens a nice beginner's guide: https://proprivacy.com/privacy-service/guides/lifehacks-setup-umatrix-beginners Download link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/umatrix/

Hello @msfntor! Thank you for the linked article about Mia! I have been a cat person since I was 10 years old. I love all cats, and we have one ourselves. Unfortunately only one, her sister died over 2 years ago (due to illness). Anyway, I can absolutely confirm that cats always do what they want, like little Mia! Cats have a mind of their own, and I love that more than anything. Cheers, AstroSkipper

Hello @Taiga-chan! Glad to hear you got my program package working! Have fun with it! You're welcome! And, many thanks! Greetings from Germany, AstroSkipper

Oh, thank you for this extension! You're welcome!

Simple Translate Quickly translate selected or typed text on web pages. Supports Google Translate and DeepL API. Tested version: 2.8.0 For using the DeepL API you have to register a free account. Unfortunately, the use of this API is a bit limited. The operators want to earn money, of course. Therefore, it is a good idea to use their web service additionally. Here is the link: https://www.deepl.com/translator Anyway, the extension Simple Translate is the best I could find and works like a charme. Download link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/simple-translate/

WRP - Web Rendering Proxy But, it won't restore the functionality of a website as, for example, MSFN, which stopped working properly in FF 52.9.0 ESR. So I'm afraid that won't be a desired solution here. Anyway, nice find for historical browsers to view websites if someone wants to!

Update notification! Both versions of my Root Certificate and Revoked Certificate Updater have been updated and are now of 08/23/2022. You can find them in section Downloads -> Latest Downloads -> Downloads related to Root Certificate Updates in the first post of this thread. Cheers, AstroSkipper

@Mathwiz! I can't find a sync function in Mypal 68 either, it doesn't seem to have been added yet. You know that @feodor2 is working on important improvements and existing problems, many functions are still missing, e.g. update function for extensions, internationalization and localization and so on. Whether the support for Firefox Sync will be added again, I don't know exactly. But, you can open an issue on GitHub. @feodor2 looks there more regularly than here.

Hello @roytam1! Thank you so much for the constantly updating of your releases! The most recent version of NM 28 (2022-09-02) is great. BTW, NM 28 is still my main browser.

I totally agree! Speaking only for myself, I do not use any Sync Services, neither Firefox nor Pale Moon Sync. I generally try to store as little data as possible on cloud services. But, one thing is clear. No matter what would be changed in this functionality, someone will always come up short and be dissatisfied.

@mina7601! In the first linked post, everything is explained sufficiently. And by the way, I never try to say anything, I say it crystal clear or as clear as necessary.

Unfortunately, that was not the subject. Read here: https://msfn.org/board/topic/183764-“be-mindful-be-grateful-be-positive-be-true-be-kind”/?do=findComment&comment=1225443 And here: https://msfn.org/board/topic/183764-“be-mindful-be-grateful-be-positive-be-true-be-kind”/?do=findComment&comment=1225463 And, last not least: https://msfn.org/board/topic/183764-“be-mindful-be-grateful-be-positive-be-true-be-kind”/?do=findComment&comment=1225487

No, I am not angry at all. But, as you know, I mean what I write, i.e., I would like to read comments with your personal experiences and ideas. I don't like rephrasing, repeating and comments without own content. To show you what I mean I rewrote your statement. Here is your comment in a more personal way of wording providing own opinions and experiences: It's just an example.