this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2024
-10 points (29.2% liked)

Firefox

17832 readers
16 users here now

A place to discuss the news and latest developments on the open-source browser Firefox

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I am using Firefox ESR on Linux. Does it make any sense to disable hardware acceleration for security reasons?

Whereas Firefox is open source, many hardware drivers, and most computer hardware are not. Enabling hardware acceleration in Firefox means using these non-open-source components, which could be a security risk. My impression is that bugs in drivers and hardware are able to cause far more damage than ones in userland software. Does this reasoning make sense?

all 7 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] beta_tester@lemmy.ml 6 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Source for your claim? Otherwise it's fud

[–] citytree@lemmy.ml 7 points 9 months ago

Source for your claim? Otherwise it’s fud

I am not making any definite claims. I am just wondering whether or not the reasoning in the question makes sense. If it does not, please tell me why the reasoning is wrong. Thank you.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 5 points 9 months ago

What claim?? It's a question.

[–] remotelove@lemmy.ca 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/security/known-vulnerabilities/firefox-esr/

ESR has a bit of history when it comes to vulnerabilities. What doesn't though?

[–] iopq@lemmy.world 4 points 9 months ago

Which one? There's an open source AMD driver

[–] Aradia@lemmy.ml 2 points 9 months ago

I found this: https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/273954/does-enabling-hardware-acceleration-increase-the-attack-surface-of-software

In my opinion, it looks that disabling hardware acceleration could increase the security on your browser.