517659 - Should be able to disable <canvas> and WebGL in build

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox Build System :: General, defect)

Description

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

Followup to bug 517557.

I think it should be possible to disable <canvas> both in the build with a configure flag and in runtime with a pref.

I think <canvas> is against the idea of the web (procedural DrawLine() instead of semantic markup <strong>Attention</strong>).
Also, many people dislike Flash for more pragmatic reasons. <canvas> can be abused for advertizing and catch-the-monkey just as much as Flash. I want neither.

I must be able to remove this from the build, if I don't like it. There may also be custom distributions or mini/special browsers which don't need it and don't want it.

Also, I have serious security concerns about WebGL. I read there's a pref, but
I'd rather not have this in the build at all - security in depth.

Comment 1

[(not currently active) Ted Mielczarek]

No, we believe these are essential parts of our web platform. WebGL has a preference to disable access.

Comment 2

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

You may believe that, I don't. That's what build flags and preferences are for. I don't want it.

Comment 3

[Benjamin Smedberg]

It is not necessary for us to add an option just because you want it. The maintenance burden is not cost effective for the project as a whole. There is (or is soon going to be) an option for --disable-webgl just because not every platform can build it yet.

Comment 4

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

So, we can disable images, we even have a UI pref (!) for it, but not canvas. Makes sense.

Comment 5

[Reed Loden [:reed]]

(In reply to comment #3)
> It is not necessary for us to add an option just because you want it. The
> maintenance burden is not cost effective for the project as a whole. There is
> (or is soon going to be) an option for --disable-webgl just because not every
> platform can build it yet.

Bug 517557 removed --disable-webgl... Do you mean it'll be re-added?

Comment 6

[Vladimir Vukicevic [:vlad] [:vladv] (needinfo me, slow to respond)]

No; every platform -can- or will be able to build it; those that can't just won't get it.  There's a disabled-by-default pref for it.

Comment 7

[(not currently active) Ted Mielczarek]

(In reply to comment #4)
> So, we can disable images, we even have a UI pref (!) for it, but not canvas.
> Makes sense.

UI prefs are a completely different issue. If we had a --disable-images configure flag I would support removing that too.

Comment 8

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

Bug 517557 comment 13:
> Yet I'm just synchronizing [Thunderbird] with Core,
> which I can't override(!)...

OK, then I'm reopening this.

It can't be that I'm required to allow OpenGL, <canvas> and whatnot when reading RSS feeds, with no way to disable it.

HTML is a *semantic* language. Semantic means it expresses meaning, not format or presentation. Anything presentational is misplaced in HTML.

I must be able to use Gecko as HTML renderer, without also getting purely presentational (and flashy) things like OpenGL, <canvas>, plugins or similar. These have absolutely no business in HTML emails, blogs and
similar places where I just want to have text with bulleted lists and links.

That "we define what the web platform is" is totally irrelevant for Thunderbird
and many other applications which embed Gecko for rendering rich text.

Please note that things like JavaScript, Plugins, Cookies were always possible to disable. On compile-time (esp. when it has significant system dependencies), as user pref and for a specific DocShell. The latter is critically important for Thunderbird to disable JavaScript and Plugins when reading HTML mails.

Why? Because the idea of plugins in emails is simply appalling, apart from being a security risk, and the fact that we don't have JavaScript in email (and even removed all possibilities for users to enable it, not even per hidden pref) was critically important for security. Thunderbird would have been vulnerable to 800% more security holes, if we didn't have JavaScript disabled.

OpenGL and <canvas> must be disabled for similar reasons: The security effects of remote content accessing the GPU directly are unknown as of now (and we will only know with time when hackers tried to get around any restrictions there are). Also, <canvas> can be visually as offensive as plugins.

I don't see any need whatsoever why I'd have to have OpenGL installed on my Linux machine just to compile Thunderbird. Same for documentation browsers, rich text widgets, many xulrunner applications and what not.

HTML != facebook & youtube

HTML is used in many, vastly different places. Many projects depend on Gecko, not just Firefox, and the vast majority of them won't need or want OpenGL, canvas.

The attitude and utter ignorance exposed here is grossly offensive and appalling.

Comment 9

[Ben Bucksch (:BenB)]

(The above is a rant, because I'm now required to build OpenGL for Thunderbird.)

Comment 10

[Vladimir Vukicevic [:vlad] [:vladv] (needinfo me, slow to respond)]

As I said in https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=517557#c16 -- stop spamming these bugs.