You may have encountered the term’ browser sandboxing’ during discussions on browser security. If you are new to the world of security, it may sound like an alien term. However, understanding sandboxing and how it works can help you address some common issues when using modern web browsers. In this guide, I will tell you everything you need to know about browser sandboxing.
What is Browser Sandboxing?
To fully understand browser sandboxing, you should first understand what happens when you open a page using a web browser.
Without sandboxing, all activities on your web browser will be done through a single process. This process will likely also have system-wide access. While this architecture can minimize resource consumption, the security risks are on the higher side. Moreover, a fault originating from a single tab can cause the browser to crash. As you can probably guess, such an architecture is not optimal while dealing with sensitive content or essential tasks.
Browser sandboxing addresses this by establishing some well-defined boundaries, thereby protecting your web browsing experience and device security. Here’s how it works:
As a security-focused architecture, browser sandboxing keeps privileged and sandboxed processes apart.
- In the privileged category, you have processes such as UI, tab, and address bar management, disk, network, and clipboard control, as well as gatekeeper processes. Such processes will have privileges when it comes to system resources.
- In the sandboxed category, you have rendering processes, which are responsible for displaying the webpages you load. HTML, CSS, and JS (JavaScript) are handled through this process. These processes will not have access to OS-level environments.
This architecture works because a webpage cannot cause system-level changes. Think of a webpage-based attack that injects code using JavaScript. Without sandboxing, this page can make system-level changes and cause problems that affect the system, steal your data, or cause crashes. It might also happen with WebAssembly, Fonts, and Media codecs.
On a sandboxed browser, even if a webpage manages to run untrusted code, this code will be limited to the rendering process. It will not have privileged access to system resources, thus protecting your device from a variety of threats. In addition to this separation, a sandboxed browser will also have a manager for Inter-process Communication, which validates requests made to either category.
These days, sandboxing is built into most modern web browsers.
Importance of Browser Sandboxing
Here are some points indicating the significance of browser sandboxing:
Browser sandboxing is necessary because the Internet is home to numerous threats. You come across such threats every time you open something. However, since we need to access these websites, we also require a system that can control what happens when you ultimately encounter malicious code. Although you may not be able to control how the attack unfolds, you can prevent the malicious code from affecting the rest of your web browser and the host system (such as your PC).
This way, even when you open a problematic webpage on a tab, the rest of the web browser will stay safe. The webpage will not be able to access the rest of the computer because they use different processes in the first place. Browser sandboxing becomes a necessity if your work requires you to deal with problematic tabs.
Browser sandboxing also becomes essential in enterprise scenarios that cannot afford to be vulnerable to cyber threats. For instance, you may have a company where employers are tasked with monitoring security threats and addressing specific issues. In this instance, it makes more sense to have a sandboxed browser. An employee can use this sandboxed browser to open any webpage that they want. While the tab may be affected, the system and remaining tabs will stay safe.
It is also essential when you want to test a security issue on a webpage or web app. You can load this page on a sandboxed web browser; rest assured, your host device will stay safe.
Types of Browser Sandboxing
Not all browser sandboxing modes are created equal. You need to pick one based on the environment and requirements. Here are the common types of browser sandboxing:
Local Browser Sandboxing
This typical browser sandboxing feature is enabled on the majority of browsers you encounter, including Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox. This method operates independently, without relying on an external source. Instead, the browser is run on the system within a restricted environment on the same device as the user. Even so, the sandbox system ensures that the browser does not have access to system resources, such as the file system, registry, devices, memory, or inter-process communication.
The noticeable advantage of local browser sandboxing is that it offers low latency, providing nearly the same speed as native browsing. Since everything happens on your own device, there is no dependency on network connectivity, ensuring that such delays are also avoided. You don’t actually need additional infrastructure costs either. However, the limitation is that the sandbox remains the only protection for the system. When the sandbox is bypassed, your whole system will also be affected.
Remote Browser Sandboxing
Remote browser sandboxing takes things to the next level, ensuring that whatever you load on a web page does not impact the host device. To make this possible, the browser is opened and managed on a remote server or a cloud environment. This way, every request that you make will be loaded through that remote system, not the host device. This system has been widely used by enterprise solutions and zero-trust architectures, which cannot handle even the slightest errors.
Compared to the previous option, you get better protection from web-based malware because there is no direct exposure to the host device. Similarly, you also get centralized control and logging options, which come in handy when you are managing an enterprise network. The problem, however, is that there is a higher latency because these two devices have to communicate with each other. Similarly, you need a reliable and consistent internet connection, along with the infrastructure costs.
Sandboxing + Process Isolation
This type of browser sandboxing combines the local sandboxing system that we came across earlier with a technology called process isolation. The sandboxing system ensures that most web browser processes do not have access to system-level permissions. The security system also ensures that processes and different components of the browser are separated. For instance, there will be other processes for tabs, extensions, GPU processors, CPU processors, and so on.
Additionally, these processes may have varying levels of permissions. The better system here is that each tab is protected on its own, and something that affects a singular tab cannot move past the process level boundary. As a result, this system offers improved performance and reduces the impact of potential exploits that affect your web browser or web page. The problem once again involves higher CPU and RAM usage, and there may be performance compromises on the local machine as well.
OS-level Browser Sandboxing
Operating system-level browser sandboxing takes things to a brand new level and offers one of the best layers of security when it comes to opening malicious or doubtful web pages. This isolation occurs at the operating system layer, meaning the browser does not have most of the permissions that a program typically has. So you can open and access any web page without ever doubting whether it can access your system.
This is great when you are looking for a security-conscious operating system and want to manage an enterprise endpoint. When it comes to advantages, OS-level sandboxing ensures kernel-level isolation, and bypassing this isolation can be quite challenging. You also get the same level of security across multiple applications. However, some limitations include a lack of flexibility and issues with misconfiguration.
Benefits of Browser Sandboxing
Given below are some common benefits of browser sandboxing. Please note that specific benefits may vary based on the environment.
Enhanced Security
As mentioned earlier, browser sandboxing ensures that the surface area of a browser’s attack is limited. That is, by keeping the browser in a sandbox, you prevent malware or bugs from accessing your system and other aspects, such as downloads or user accounts. As a firm, you encounter fewer endpoint system compromises.
Data Protection
When you enable browser sandboxing, you also create a distinction between different types of data. As a result, sandboxing can prevent data exfiltration and ensure that enterprise credentials and other sensitive data are kept in a safer space. You can also benefit from the lack of cross-site tracking and session hijacking.
Improved Testing
From a software testing standpoint, browser sandboxing is a blessing. You get to create multiple sandbox browsers that you can easily use for testing. This works best when testing third-party scripts, software, or integrations. You can also check the impact of malware and other exploits without damage to the host.
Improved UI
When you use something like remote browser sandboxing, you also benefit from having a cleaner user interface. This happens because the remote system filters out unwanted content, such as pop-ups, intrusive ads, and annoying overlays. As a result, you get a cleaner version of the webpage that you can interact with more easily.
Easier Cleanup
When you run a browser in a sandbox, you keep everything within that sandbox. So even when something goes wrong, you can simply get rid of everything by deleting the sandbox altogether. This is particularly beneficial because you don’t have to worry about malware removal, tracking, or recovery processes. Instead, everything happens in a single cleanup process.
Use Cases for Sandbox Browser
Here are some instances where you could use a sandbox browser:
Regular Browsing
As we mentioned, most popular browsers use sandboxing for regular browsing. This additional security layer prevents issues like drive-by downloads and malware execution. You also stay protected from problematic cookies and long-term tracking systems. In simpler words, a sandboxing system protects your PC even when you explore somewhat dangerous parts of the web.
Enterprise Usage
Enterprise systems utilize sandboxed browsers at a higher level because they are fundamental to their overall security architecture. These are deployed in a way that ensures your organizational assets are secure and allows you to isolate problematic websites and content. More importantly, this system ensures that a potential threat cannot affect the endpoint hosts within that organization.
Testing & Analysis
Browser sandboxing is also utilized by testing and analysis teams because a sandboxed browser provides the optimal environment for testing experimental or unstable versions. They are also quite effective in assessing the impact of vulnerabilities and malware that are currently in the wild. You also get to open almost any link without worrying about the potential aftermath.
As you can see, there’s no undermining the role of browser sandboxing, no matter where you are coming from.
Wrapping Up
I hope this comprehensive guide has given you an idea about browser sandboxing and why it is needed. This is one of those features that silently protects you, even though you might not be aware of it at first glance. As browser security becomes more critical, more browsers are implementing sandboxing features, and you should not turn off this option under any circumstances.
