"New Sandboxing Approach in Web Browser Increases Security"

A team of researchers from the University of Texas at Austin, the University of California San Diego, Stanford University and Mozilla, developed a new approach to securing web browsers. The approach, called the RLBox framework, moves some browser code into secure WebAssembly sandboxes to prevent the exploitation of unreported bugs in the code that would lead to the takeover of a user's computer. Games and apps used for music streaming, video editing, encryption, and image recognition are some applications that can take advantage of WebAssembly. The RLBox framework will be applied to secure one rendering library used for certain fonts in a test release of the Firefox browser for the Linux operating system. If the initial tests are successful, the approach will be used in full release versions on Windows and macOS platforms. This article continues to discuss the current state of web browser security, the use of the RLBox framework to secure web browsers, and the future expansion of this approach. 

Science Daily reports "New Sandboxing Approach in Web Browser Increases Security"