Opera Presto Source Code Leaks Online (bleepingcomputer.com)

Catalin Cimpanu, writing for BleepingComputer: An unknown third-party has leaked the source code of the old Opera Presto browser engine on GitHub, and later on Bitbucket, two services for hosting and sharing source code online. Opera Presto is the layout engine at the heart of the old Opera browser. Opera Software used Presto between Opera 7 and Opera 14 and replaced Presto with Blink, Chrome's layout engine, in Opera 15, released in May 2013. Despite its removal from the company's main product, Opera engineers continued to use Opera Presto for the Opera Mini and Opera Mobile browsers. According to timestamps, the Opera Presto source code was first uploaded on GitHub but was taken down last Friday, on January 13, after Opera's lawyers filed a DMCA request.

Comments

Browser developers with lawyers

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

Browser developers with lawyers...what could possibly go wrong?

Leaked code

[Anonymous Coward]

Obviously Russia's behind this.

Re:Leaked code

[MightyYar]

I think it may have influenced my browser choice.

Re:Leaked code

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

Clearly, my current choice of browser is illegitimate. I will uninstall it at once and reinstall the bland one that lies about blocking corporate advertising instead.

Re:Leaked code

[MightyYar]

Meh, that sounds like work. I'd just not do anything but complain really loudly.

Re:Leaked code

[arth1]

Ironically enough, it could be more true since Russians tend towards Opera for some weird reason.

It has decent language support, and is not American.
Russians have (possibly for good reasons) as much distrust of American companies as Americans have of Russian companies.

Re:Leaked code

[Anonymous Coward]

For Americans to distrust Russian companies Russia would actually need to have companies that are even worth distrusting. The state of California has a higher GDP than Russia. Take nuclear weapons off the table and the California National Guard alone can project more global military power than Russia. Keeping in mind that California is home to the port facilities for air craft carriers and their supporting battle group as well as nuclear submarines. The hardest part of a conflict between Russia and the State of California would be keeping the citizens and students living in Berkley from automatically surrendering.

Re:Leaked code

[Anonymous Coward]

You might want to learn some history, boyo.

It's scary that your post gets modded up. The other poster was correct. The US luckily averted another Stalingrad. Although a bunch of snowflakes being sent to the Russian Front would indeed be LOL worthy. No safe spaces there!

Re: Leaked code

[Anonymous Coward]

The F-22 is the best fighter ever produced in the history of mankind.

Re: Leaked code

[gl4ss]

russian fighter numbers are a joke.

they got good tech, but can't really afford that many of the modern fighters now.

So what?

[OneHundredAndTen]

Opera makes no difference any more. Much less as a closed source project.

Re:So what?

[Anonymous Coward]

Opera less than/equal v12 was and still is a superior browser for speed/efficiency.. I still use Opera v10.10 as my main browser today, loading pages in others only when there are display problems. If Opera Presto ever did go open source it could quickly become a real threat to the proprietary junk chrome and others are turning out.

Best thing about Legacy Opera is it gives control over individual pages/domains; options scripts/cookies/css/content blocking... Nothing for the average moron but oh baby, nothing like it for techs.

Where can I find this source code now plz!

Re: So what?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, click to play was an optional security feature. Opera 12 has everything. If it was updated with the current standards it would still be better than any of the other browsers.

At last

[ezdiy]

The crucial, extremely illegal link: https://bitbucket.org/prestoco... And it compiles on modern linux, whoa. Can we have opensource, non-webkit, non-gecko browser now? Seriously, the slowness and resource of post-opera browsers is getting ridiculous - explorer is the fastest explorer at this point (not by js benchmarks, but overall user experience is far snappier).

Re:At last

[slashdice]

lynx is open source. links is open source.

Re:At last

[snookiex]

Try Xombrero. It's Webkit, but it's pretty fast and has interesting features.

Re:At last

[Blaskowicz]

I remember trying it a couple years ago and nothing worked because, security. Might be the best browser ever thus, but it seems it's for network admins or sysadmins highly competent in networking, or for deploying a configured, kiosk-like browser.

Opera Mini is Webcore, not Presto

[emil]

If you set the "data savings" option down from extreme to high in the settings menu, the scanner at ssllabs.com will report Webkit, not Presto. The Webkit version will be whatever is included on your device (Webcore). If you are running KitKat or Jellybean, you will see lots and lots of security problems with your Webcore, since they date from the end of the XP era, and haven't been updated since.

I believe that Presto would be installed at Opera's corporate systems, and it would feed a compressed stream to the Webkit used by Opera Mini.

Opera Mini could not be so small and include both a complete rendering engine and links to Webcore. They essentially cheated.

Re:Opera Mini is Webcore, not Presto

[Greger47]

Opera Mini is Webcore, not Presto

No, Opera Mini uses both.

With data savings set to extreme it runs everything through Opera servers that run Presto. This is the traditional Mini mode that has been around since the beginning.

With data savings set to high it will indeed use WebView on the phone. This is a rather new feature introduced last year. The traffic is still directed through Opera servers, now using the "Opera Turbo" mode from Opera's desktop browser and the Opera for Android mobile browser.

/greger

Hey Rocky, wanna see me...

[puddingebola]

pull some old browser engine code out of my hat? Presto!

Why dont they open source

[Eravnrekaree]

Since they have mostly given up on Presto and no longer develop it, why not open source it? I dont get why they would freak out over a source code leak, since they no longer support or provide a product based on it. It makes no sense

Re:Why dont they open source

[citizenr]

Because despite switching business model to manufacturing Chrome Skin Opera realizes Presto is still a quality product that could compete successfully, so why give it away?

Re:Why dont they open source

[Waccoon]

Never rule out good old ego. I can't tell you how many times I've asked someone to open-source their abandoned a freeware application, and they flat out refused. That's especially true when they know there's a community that depends on a very narrow range of applications, and people need to use a specific application even if it's no longer maintained. Everybody likes to feel important.

Also, hey... if movies, music, and 8-bit game ROMs can still be worth millions when the latest craze comes along, why not deprecated browser code? "If you're good at something, never give it away for free."

3rd party code

[emil]

One common reason is 3rd party code, which they may have licensed and do not control or own.

Alternately, the code may still be seen internally as useful, which it is with Opera Mini. It is still used to generate revenue, and may contain what Opera considers to be trade secrets that give them an advantage over a competitor (i.e. Amazon Silk).

On Bitbucket, Github received a DMCA Takedown

[CrashNBrn]

shamilgumirov / presto-opera / Downloads — Bitbucket

Say hello to CVE-2014-6041

[emil]

And in not disclosing that it is using both, it opens many, many security holes on older platforms. Furthermore, we don't know how much work is being done by the local Webcore, and what sort of hostile traffic that Presto might send to it.

Avoid this browser in those cases. It is not safe.

We should all be looking at Tor at this point.