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Google Chrome Developers On Browser Security
CowboyRobot writes "Developers of Google's Chrome browser have spoken up in an article describing their approach to keeping the browser secure, focusing on minimizing the frequency, duration, and severity of exposure. One tool Chrome uses is a recently open-sourced update distribution application called 'Omaha.' 'Omaha automatically checks for software updates every five hours. When a new update is available, a fraction of clients are told about it, based on a probability set by the team. This probability lets the team verify the quality of the release before informing all clients.'"
It's certainly better than having the entire user base beta test the patch for them which is where we're at now in most cases.
But then I realized the cable was blue, so I only gave it one star. I hate blue.
No, they're getting a random sample of their user base to test a ready-for-release patch so that in case there are a couple cases not within their testing scenarios where the patch is unstable or a security hole is present, they will be able to address that (if it's serious enough) before releasing it to the whole world. This is so much better than the current way of doing things, because patches are still tested in the shop to the same degree as they would be without Omaha, except this way there's even more to be sure that the patch works correctly.
The "Don't Be Evil" policy currently only applies to a fraction of Google's userbase. Once they verify the quality of this policy they will release it to all users.
Don't Be Evil [BETA]