Popular AdBlocking extension, UBlock Origin has received a new update (v1.25) to protect Firefox users against CNAME Cloaking or First-Party tracking or DNS delegation or DNA aliasing.
The Extension brings the feature to Firefox by utilizing Mozilla’ WebExtensions DNS API, since there is no such comparable API available for Google Chrome, hence Chromium browsers may not get this feature unless such API is developed by Google. While Firefox protects you from third-party tracking out of the box, if you install UBO, it will block first-party tracking scripts in the Firefox browser.
Three months back a user brought an issue to UBlock Origin creator notice that a french site’s (liberation.fr) first-party tracker hasn’t been detected by extension. Generally, the tracking scripts that served from a third-party domain (third-party trackers) are blocked by browsers such as Firefox, Safari, and brave and conventional ad blockers. To circumvent this, sites are reportedly trying to load trackers via a subdomain or same domain which are called first-party trackers, thus making impossible for adblockers to identify.
Now here comes UBlock Origin for Firefox to uncloak CNAME records. CNAME-uncloaked network requests will be shown as blue entries in Popup panel and logger. Here is how you can update to latest UBlock Origin version in FIrefox.
If you’ve already installed UBO,
1. Click on Firefox menu >Add-ons > Extensions
2. Click on the gear icon and select “check for updates”, Firefox informs about the update via a door hanger notification and prompts for permission to install the update. Click Update and restart the Firefox browser.
Don’t be worried about UBO’s new “Access IP address and hostname information” permission, as said in release announcement on Reddit, the permission is to get “details about websites/trackers from DNS servers directly through browser API.”
READ: Why Ublock Origin requires new permission to change your privacy-related Settings?
You can download UBlock Origin for Firefox from AMO here.
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