Chromium security updates

Richmond

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Jan 19, 2022, 7:30:11 PM1/19/22

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I see debian 10's chromium is currently on version 90.0.4430.212
(Developer Build), whereas google-chrome is on Version 97.0.4692.99
(Official Build) (64-bit). Does that mean it is out of date and has
security vulnerabilities?

https://chromereleases.googleblog.com/search/label/Stable%20updates

Debian 10 is supported until 2024.

https://wiki.debian.org/LTS

harry...@tutanota.com

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Jan 19, 2022, 8:30:05 PM1/19/22

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20 Jan 2022, 10:08 by rich...@criptext.com:

Aside from the usual disassociation of version numbers, I'm possessed of a quiet confidence that the `giving back' factor would have some lack of alacrity to it, once the party concerned has what it wants.
Yes.
Colour me cynical.Cheers!

Harry

The Wanderer

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Jan 19, 2022, 10:20:06 PM1/19/22

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On 2022-01-19 at 19:08, Richmond wrote:

> I see debian 10's chromium is currently on version 90.0.4430.212
> (Developer Build), whereas google-chrome is on Version 97.0.4692.99
> (Official Build) (64-bit). Does that mean it is out of date and has
> security vulnerabilities?

Roughly speaking, yes, but there's background and context here.

First up: the version of Chromium in Debian stable, like that of every
other package in stable, will remain unchanged until such a time as a
new Debian point release is made. However, there may be updated versions
made available in stable-backports in the meantime. (I do not use
stable-backports myself, so anyone who knows better than I do may feel
free to clarify, amplify, or correct on this.)

Recent-ish-ly, there was discussion about dropping Chromium from Debian
entirely (except for the version in stable, which would remain unchanged
and quickly become stale), because the packagers couldn't keep up with
updating the packaged version against the upstream releases, and as such
vulnerable versions were being shipped for too long anyway. If I recall
correctly and my archives are accurate, the chromium package actually
*was* dropped from Debian testing at that point, with the most recent
release before the drop having been 93.0.4577.82.

I followed parts of that discussion, and from what I can tell, the
outcome of it was that more people stepped forward and took up
maintenance of the Debian packages for Chromium. Version 97.0.4692.71 is
now in Debian testing, and I understand that a stable-backports build
was pending, as of the last word in the part of the discussion I was
following (about a week ago now); that version, or a successor, should
make it into an updated version of Debian stable at some point.

That may not help very much for now, but it should give hope for the
future on this front, as well as bring relief that at least things
aren't going to be ending up getting that much worse.

--
The Wanderer

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all
progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw

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Richmond

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Jan 20, 2022, 5:40:07 AM1/20/22

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Thanks. I have belatedly discovered the wiki
https://wiki.debian.org/Chromium which suggests
https://wiki.debian.org/ungoogled-chromium which is also out of date. :)

Andrei POPESCU

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Jan 21, 2022, 1:30:05 PM1/21/22

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On Jo, 20 ian 22, 00:08:52, Richmond wrote:
> I see debian 10's chromium is currently on version 90.0.4430.212
> (Developer Build), whereas google-chrome is on Version 97.0.4692.99
> (Official Build) (64-bit). Does that mean it is out of date and has
> security vulnerabilities?
>
> https://chromereleases.googleblog.com/search/label/Stable%20updates

The plan was:

https://www.debian.org/releases/buster/amd64/release-notes/ch-information.en.html#browser-security

Unfortunately both Firefox and Chromium proved to be much more of a
challenge then expected at the time of releasing Debian 10 "buster" (now
oldstable).

Firefox appears to be in slightly better shape (updated version
available in bullseye/stable, still pending for buster/oldstable).

Updated Chromium for bullseye/stable appears to be imminent, hopefully
buster/oldstable will follow.

> Debian 10 is supported until 2024.
>
> https://wiki.debian.org/LTS

As per https://wiki.debian.org/LTS/Using not all packages are supported
by LTS.

Kind regards,
Andrei
--
http://wiki.debian.org/FAQsFromDebianUser

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Salvatore Bonaccorso

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Jan 22, 2022, 8:50:05 AM1/22/22

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Hi,

On Fri, Jan 21, 2022 at 07:20:26PM +0100, Andrei POPESCU wrote:
> On Jo, 20 ian 22, 00:08:52, Richmond wrote:
> > I see debian 10's chromium is currently on version 90.0.4430.212
> > (Developer Build), whereas google-chrome is on Version 97.0.4692.99
> > (Official Build) (64-bit). Does that mean it is out of date and has
> > security vulnerabilities?
> >
> > https://chromereleases.googleblog.com/search/label/Stable%20updates
>
> The plan was:
>
> https://www.debian.org/releases/buster/amd64/release-notes/ch-information.en.html#browser-security
>
> Unfortunately both Firefox and Chromium proved to be much more of a
> challenge then expected at the time of releasing Debian 10 "buster" (now
> oldstable).
>
> Firefox appears to be in slightly better shape (updated version
> available in bullseye/stable, still pending for buster/oldstable).

In fact support for chromium in oldstable has been discontinued, see
https://lists.debian.org/debian-security-announce/2022/msg00012.html .

Regards,
Salvatore

Richmond

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Jan 23, 2022, 6:00:06 PM1/23/22

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I've built Version 100.0.4845.0 (Developer Build) (64-bit) and it seems
to be working fine here on debian 10.

Richmond

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Jan 24, 2022, 7:10:08 AM1/24/22

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Not OK actually, it is very slow.

Christian Britz

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Jan 24, 2022, 12:10:06 PM1/24/22

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On 2022-01-24 12:44 UTC+0100, Richmond wrote:

>> I've built Version 100.0.4845.0 (Developer Build) (64-bit) and it seems
>> to be working fine here on debian 10.
>
> Not OK actually, it is very slow.

The reason are probably enabled debug options.

Personally I am not satisfied with the security support for any browser
included in Debian, I just use original Firefox and Chrome (and
Thunderbird), which are easy to install. If you don't like/trust Google
but want to use a Chromium based browser, you might consider using
ungoogled-chromium.

Richmond

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Jan 27, 2022, 7:30:05 AM1/27/22

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I used:

gn gen out/Default "--args=is_debug=false symbol_level=0 blink_symbol_level=0 v8_symbol_level=0"

But it seems slow on tweetdeck with high cpu usage.

Richmond

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Jan 27, 2022, 8:20:05 AM1/27/22

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Richmond <rich...@criptext.com> writes:

> I used:
>
> gn gen out/Default "--args=is_debug=false symbol_level=0 blink_symbol_level=0 v8_symbol_level=0"
>
> But it seems slow on tweetdeck with high cpu usage.

Now trying:

gn gen out/Default "--args=is_debug=false symbol_level=0

blink_symbol_level=0 v8_symbol_level=0 is_official_build=true
chrome_pgo_phase = 0"

If you are wondering what's causing the energy crisis, it's me compiling
chromium.

Richmond

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Jan 28, 2022, 2:00:05 PM1/28/22

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Richmond <rich...@criptext.com> writes:

> Now trying:
>
> gn gen out/Default "--args=is_debug=false symbol_level=0
> blink_symbol_level=0 v8_symbol_level=0 is_official_build=true
> chrome_pgo_phase = 0"
>

I've built this version and it is working well.

As the problem with chromium is caused by the debian build tools,
perhaps it can be provided from the stable version build as an appimage?

Or perhaps it can be built without the build tools and just provided for
selected architecture?

Nicholas Geovanis

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Jan 28, 2022, 3:50:06 PM1/28/22

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Thanks for your work.

Can you explain briefly the meaning of these 2 build parameters?:

v8_symbol_level, chrome_pgo_phase

Richmond

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Jan 28, 2022, 4:20:06 PM1/28/22

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This is to remove debugging symbols (presumably from the V8 javascript
code) which I hoped would speed things up.

chrome_pgo_phase

This I set to zero to prevent an error caused by setting
"is_official_build=true"