Google has announced changes to the Google Safe Browsing process in Chrome for both desktop and mobile. Previously, Safe Browsing would download a list of dangerous websites to keep locally on the device and then check if the user’s visited sites match the list. This list would update every 30-60 minutes, creating a “time gap” where new websites could emerge or malicious sites could evade detection. Google’s statistics indicate that these dangerous websites typically stay open for about 10 minutes before closing.
The new approach of Safe Browsing shifts towards working online entirely. Chrome will now check against the real-time list of dangerous websites on the server. This list is continuously updated, immediately responding to new instances of dangerous websites.
To prevent slow website access due to constantly checking the list, Chrome will cache a “safe website list” on both the device and the server. It will retrieve data from the cache first. If it doesn’t match, only then will it check against the list of dangerous websites again. In the event that access to the server hosting the dangerous website is slow, Chrome can still fall back to check the list of dangerous websites using the previous method.
Google has also partnered with Fastly, a major CDN provider, to implement Oblivious HTTP (OHTTP) as a “privacy server” between Chrome and the Safe Browsing server. This setup prevents Google from knowing which user sent which website for verification, thus safeguarding user privacy while maintaining security measures.
Source: Google Security
Current Approach: Offline
New Approach: Online
TLDR: Google is revamping Safe Browsing in Chrome to function online, with real-time checks against a list of dangerous websites to enhance security and privacy for users.
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