Steam web browser safety concerns

[jasoncollege24]

I love the fact that Steam has a browser to use with the in-game overlay, but this browser (in it's current state) is dangerous!

Ads: The browser does not block ads at all, and there is no built-in option for this. Many ads are known to be intrusive, or malicious, infecting a user's system, just by clicking, or displaying them.

Just today, I was using it to look up info on a game, and withing 60 seconds of opening the desired site, I was hit with full page ads, via site redirect. I had to start my search from the very beginning, because there was no way to go back.

Security settings: There are none that I can find! Every web browser I've seen has security settings that can be changed by the user. The Steam web browser has none.

Add-on/Plugin Support: completely non-existent! Support for this could easily fix the above 2 problems, as there are add-ons, and plugins for chrome/chromium that would help secure the browser.

This is not a new problem. Search the internet, and you will find that MANY people have asked about ad-blocking, or add-on/plugin support for the Steam web browser for these very reasons.

[Satoru]

No browser comes with ad blocking built in

By your logic all browsers are “insecure”

Asking for “security settings” is pointless without saying WHAT settings you want and why

[Gwarsbane]

The Steam browser should NEVER be used for any website other them official steam websites. Why people want to use it for 3rd party websites I will never know, its a crappy browser.

If Valve allows you to open up any website that they do not officially own, they should really stop allowing that and force the site to open in what ever your default web browser is.

This would be far better than adding in a bunch of unwanted bloat and security holes and yes adding in all that stuff you want OP would open security holes.

[jasoncollege24]

Using Alt-Tab in some games can crash those games. In rare instances, it can also crash the PC. The in-game overlay's web browser comes in handy for this! Makes it so you don't have to end the game (or risk crashing it) to research something you're stuck on.

People also use it to play music on such sites as youTube, Spotify, and the like while playing games. I don't do this personally.

There is one browser I know with built-in adblocking, which is the adblock browser. Changing browsers might not be practical, but including an extension, such as adblock plus as an option for those who want it shouldn't open up security holes.

Security settings can include the ability to restrict use of things like flash, javascript, location, and the like. You know... actual things you find in a browser's security settings.

And yes, by default most browsers are insecure in some ways. The big thing here is really ad-blocking. No browser, except one that I know of, has built in ad blocking. As a rule, I install ad-blockers on all my devices where I can. Before I started using adblockers, I was hit with far too many pieces of malware (from ADS), or full screen ads that prevent further use, than I can count.

I have a decent rig, and if I don't block ads, they can really slow down my system, causing high CPU usage... This is the last thing a gamer wants.

[Winged One]

Originally posted by jasoncollege24:

Before I started using adblockers, I was hit with far too many pieces of malware (from ADS), or full screen ads that prevent further use, than I can count.

this seems like less of an issue with ad's themselves, and more of an issue with the kind of websites you chose to browse.. never had that issue on any of my current PC's or VM's

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by Gwarsbane:

The Steam browser should NEVER be used for any website other them official steam websites. Why people want to use it for 3rd party websites I will never know, its a crappy browser.

And its not like you can't just alt tab to firefox or chrome or something.

I mean fair point if you;'re just gonna look up something on Gamefaqs or something but otherwise.. nope.

[jasoncollege24]

Originally posted by Start_Running:

And its not like you can't just alt tab to firefox or chrome or something.

I mean fair point if you;'re just gonna look up something on Gamefaqs or something but otherwise.. nope.

Well... you can't, if doing so would cause a crash!

Originally posted by theseraph1:

this seems like less of an issue with ad's themselves, and more of an issue with the kind of websites you chose to browse.. never had that issue on any of my current PC's or VM's

Facebook ads have been known to be malicious. At least they used to be. Also the full page ad that prevented me from using the browser (as mentioned earlier) was on a wiki page for one of the games. I can't remember the exact URL.

Come on now... it's not like I'm using the steam web browser to watch porn. I'm just trying to research my games, without leaving the games.

Seems like everyone is against the idea of enhancing the steam web browser. They designed it for what I use it for... looking up info on the web about games, while in-game. The idea is to make it safer, and more practical for this purpose.

[Start_Running]

Originally posted by jasoncollege24:

Originally posted by Start_Running:

And its not like you can't just alt tab to firefox or chrome or something.

I mean fair point if you;'re just gonna look up something on Gamefaqs or something but otherwise.. nope.

Well... you can't, if doing so would cause a crash!

I've yet to encounter such a scenario.

[Winged One]

Originally posted by jasoncollege24:

Facebook ads have been known to be malicious. At least they used to be. Also the full page ad that prevented me from using the browser (as mentioned earlier) was on a wiki page for one of the games. I can't remember the exact URL.

first, don't use public wiki's (with the exception of wikipedia :P ).. they are free to make and edit, they have always done questionable things in order to turn a profit..


as for facebook, there really isn't any reason to check it while you are in the middle of a game..

Originally posted by Start_Running:

Originally posted by jasoncollege24:

Well... you can't, if doing so would cause a crash!

I've yet to encounter such a scenario.

only game I have ever encountered that did was my old copy of Oblivion.. wonder where I ever put the disc for that..

[The HopelessGamer™]

Originally posted by Satoru:

No browser comes with ad blocking built in

By your logic all browsers are “insecure”

Asking for “security settings” is pointless without saying WHAT settings you want and why

Opera does. Opera has a form of adblock built in.

Originally posted by jasoncollege24:

I love the fact that Steam has a browser to use with the in-game overlay, but this browser (in it's current state) is dangerous!

Ads: The browser does not block ads at all, and there is no built-in option for this. Many ads are known to be intrusive, or malicious, infecting a user's system, just by clicking, or displaying them.

Just today, I was using it to look up info on a game, and withing 60 seconds of opening the desired site, I was hit with full page ads, via site redirect. I had to start my search from the very beginning, because there was no way to go back.

Security settings: There are none that I can find! Every web browser I've seen has security settings that can be changed by the user. The Steam web browser has none.

Add-on/Plugin Support: completely non-existent! Support for this could easily fix the above 2 problems, as there are add-ons, and plugins for chrome/chromium that would help secure the browser.

This is not a new problem. Search the internet, and you will find that MANY people have asked about ad-blocking, or add-on/plugin support for the Steam web browser for these very reasons.

Any other browser would have allowed those ads to pop up unless set otherwise. So its not steams fault. The steam browser is... not exactly something one would use for every day browsing. Use chrome or something.

The browser is not dangerous at all unless you go onto a incredibly dodgy site... And even then its not very common to get a virus from a website unless you click on something dodgy af and allow it to do something nasty.

[jasoncollege24]

I have a few different games (Yes they are old games) that do crash when alt-tab is used. (one crashes when the game's focus returns) Haven't had one crash the PC since windows 8 i think.

I'd consider full page ads a bit on the nasty side. What i had open was the official wiki for the game I was playing. The same site worked fine in Chrome.

At the moment, I'm testing pi-hole as an adblock solution, redirecting only my Steam device to it. So far, I haven't seen any negative impact, but that is only 1 device. No idea how it will perform network wide, and requires a Linux, or raspberry pi device to work. Right now, I'm, using a VM. lol