Other Chromium Legacy: Google Chrome for OS X 10.7 – 10.9

[Wowfunhappy]

Curious to know more about this exploit, particularly if it's now seen actively in the wild.

I'm sorry, I thought I'd included the link but clearly I forgot! https://github.blog/security/vulner...ect-transition-to-rce-in-the-chrome-renderer/

I don't know that this exploit has been found in use in the wild, but there's a public proof of concept available.

An attacker would still need to get past the OS X sandbox. I assume the sandbox on Mavericks (and similar versions) has known vulnerabilities, but I have not actually checked whether this is the case. Regardless, an attacker would need to actually be targeting the sandbox on your OS, and obviously there aren't that many Chromium Legacy users out there, so it probably wouldn't be worth it. Still, I think it's better to turn off V8 optimizations.

 

[iPodNano3]

ran into a weird issue, i installed this on mountain lion and corrupted the app completely. i booted back into mavericks and the app on mavericks was corrupted too. i deleted the chromium apps on both partitions. i used the prefpane again which told me it was installed. it didnt give me a folder chooser, though. i did not find the app anywhere, and i cannot get the app to reinstall, even after reinstalling the prefpane. sometimes, the prefpane tells me it is not able to connect to the internet. is there a way to completely reset the prefpane? i think the internet issue is my fault, but the other one is definitely a bug.

 

[MacBiter]

I'm still getting the 'web pages going blank' issue. It can happen on any site but is most often resolved by a single page reload. It is also resolved by the more annoying Quit/Re-launch. However there are sites - and Facebook is the worst - where reloading either causes the page to appear very briefly before going blank again, or goes blank as soon as any action such as moving the cursor occurs. Yesterday evening the only way I could get Facebook to remain was Quit/Re-launch, after at least a dozen page reloads.

Is anyone else seeing this?.

 

[MBAir2010]

I'm still getting the 'web pages going blank' issue. It can happen on any site but is most often resolved by a single page reload. It is also resolved by the more annoying Quit/Re-launch. However there are sites - and Facebook is the worst - where reloading either causes the page to appear very briefly before going blank again, or goes blank as soon as any action such as moving the cursor occurs. Yesterday evening the only way I could get Facebook to remain was Quit/Re-launch, after at least a dozen page reloads.

Is anyone else seeing this?.

yes, on some sites, they wont load unless i refresh the tab.
i only use Chromium on a few sites like cycling weekly, e-bay and a movie streaming one.
as the main ones like MR, osx daily, EPL etc is hosted by Sealion.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

ran into a weird issue, i installed this on mountain lion and corrupted the app completely. i booted back into mavericks and the app on mavericks was corrupted too. i deleted the chromium apps on both partitions. i used the prefpane again which told me it was installed. it didnt give me a folder chooser, though. i did not find the app anywhere, and i cannot get the app to reinstall, even after reinstalling the prefpane. sometimes, the prefpane tells me it is not able to connect to the internet. is there a way to completely reset the prefpane? i think the internet issue is my fault, but the other one is definitely a bug.

Try using the uninstaller included in the PrefPane download.

If that still doesn't work, try booting OS X into Safe Mode and then booting back into normal mode. This will reset the Launch Services application cache.

 

[MacBiter]

yes, on some sites, they wont load unless i refresh the tab.
i only use Chromium on a few sites like cycling weekly, e-bay and a movie streaming one.
as the main ones like MR, osx daily, EPL etc is hosted by Sealion.

Sealion? Interesting - I now use Chromium as my main browser, though more than two-thirds of the sites I used to use I can still see with Firefox 78 ESR.

ETA: I thought I'd try SeaLion but whatever download link I try, all I get is a whole load of files and folders, not the application itself.

 

[wicknix]

Try this link: https://github.com/wicknix/SeaLion/releases/download/33.0.0/sealion-33.0.0.intel32.dmg
And this link for extra themes, extensions, etc: https://github.com/wicknix/SeaLion/releases/download/33.0.0/SeaLion-Extras-33.0.0.zip
It will allow more sites to work than FF78 will, and is quite a bit more up to date on current web standards.

Otherwise give Pale Moon a try. It's even more current, and isn't a g00gle product.

Pale Moon downloads

 

[MacBiter]

Try this link: https://github.com/wicknix/SeaLion/releases/download/33.0.0/sealion-33.0.0.intel32.dmg
And this link for extra themes, extensions, etc: https://github.com/wicknix/SeaLion/releases/download/33.0.0/SeaLion-Extras-33.0.0.zip
It will allow more sites to work than FF78 will, and is quite a bit more up to date on current web standards.

Otherwise give Pale Moon a try. It's even more current, and isn't a g00gle product.

Pale Moon downloads

Yes, that worked thanks. It's a very old fashioned looking browser!

Pale Moon looks more the ticket for me! But... how do I import my Firefox bookmarks?.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

I'm sorry, I really don't like being annoying about this, but could we please keep this thread focused on Chromium Legacy? I want people to be able to come to this thread and read through the last few pages to see recent issues and updates related to Chromium Legacy. Also, I get email notifications whenever someone replies to this thread.

We have this thread for other browsers: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/web-browsers-for-early-intel-macs.2280783/

 

[MacBiter]

There seems to be discussion both here and in another forum that Legacy is "unpatched" and "abandoned by bluebox". Is either claim a fact? Should we start to worry?.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

I mean, it's not that simple. What is a fact is that Chromium Legacy hasn't been updated since May, and no one knows if/when Bluebox will next release an update.

Separately, in the time since Chromium Legacy was last updated, researchers discovered and publicized a serious security vulnerability in Chromium. Because Chromium Legacy has not been updated since May, the current version of Chromium Legacy is not protected against this vulnerability. As a workaround, I recommend you copy and paste chrome://settings/content/v8 into your address bar and select "Don’t allow sites to use the V8 optimizer", which will remove the vulnerability at the cost of making Chromium slower.

The only other information I have is that when Chromium Legacy mysteriously disappeared from Github a few months ago, and I reached out to Bluebox via email, he was adamant that he was committed to Chromium Legacy long term. (I want to only use this email as a last resort, but I will reach out again if we don't get an update within the next few months.)

 

[MBAir2010]

BEWARE!
the last "thing" my now deceased early intel Mac Mini did was try to clear out data from Chromium Legacy
so I could successfully delete the faulty and unstable program.
then everything froze were i lost a great OWC 1TB ssd and my 2012 Mac mini.

this program is not worth the rusk I suffered and wish I never downloaded the app.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

I'm sorry about your SSD, but I don't think Chromium Legacy is what killed it, apps don't do that! The SSD was probably dying anyway.

It is very possible that Chromium Legacy, as a performance-intensive application, was the thing that stressed the dying drive past its breaking point, but it was a matter of time regardless.

 

[Tankerthebuberz]

To those asking - has the ship sailed? Alas it has….It has been a good run and this news has also been confirmed by Bluebox on the unofficial Chromium developers' Discord. GitHub was never really the right place to publish a project like that, especially with git-push. That's why other Chromium legacy ports like Superium and several others were pulled. When they took down his GitHub repository, he stopped working on it because of life circumstances. Some people have expressed interest in taking over the project, but to be honest, there are many challenges that make it difficult, especially on versions 10.7 to 10.10. Lion is now nearly 14 years old (time flies). If anyone has the skills, I would suggest reaching out on Discord. Other than that, it has been a good run. 🫡

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Huh?!? Where is this Discord?

I'm a little taken aback by

When they took down his GitHub repository, he stopped working on it because of life circumstances.

Because this is the opposite of what he told me at the time.

 

[Tankerthebuberz]

You can go ask if you’d like that’s what I was told I’m just the messenger….

 

[Tankerthebuberz]

Unless it’s not bluebox but it says his username so I dunno 🤷

 

[Wowfunhappy]

Can you please link me to this Discord?

 

[MBAir2010]

The SSD was probably dying anyway.

The ssd drive (1TB Gg OWC) is only a couple of months old.
....for the record.

the rest of your comments were very inaccurate.
how can you speculate that the drive was weak?
regardless?

 

[Wowfunhappy]

The ssd drive (1TB Gg OWC) is only a couple of months old.
....for the record.

Then you got a lemon and should do a warranty claim!

how can you speculate that the drive was weak?

Because it died. 🤷‍♂️ That's the sign of bad hardware, it works great until it suddenly does not. Standard software doesn't make it randomly stop working.

 

[MBAir2010]

Then you got a lemon and should do a warranty claim!

stop this, the drive was great!

we don't know what really happened so I need to mail that back
then we can belittle the drive if needed.
just to accuse something is not professional.

and should let this be and move on.

 

[Wowfunhappy]

To be clear I'm not trying to slander OWC, everyone has lemons. But apps don't just break SSDs, it doesn't work that way. It's about as likely that the SSD died because you looked at it funny.

I suppose if you wanted to destroy an SSD, you could write an app to thrash it as much as possible, but this would be very noticeable and even then, if the SSD was new it would take months to use up its write endurance.

Edit: Actually, I will also add that I have not had a great experience with OWC hardware (a lot of it has failed on me), but that's just anecdata.

 

[MacBiter]

stop this, the drive was great!

we don't know what really happened so I need to mail that back
then we can belittle the drive if needed.
just to accuse something is not professional.

and should let this be and move on.

I've only ever had one SSD fail (touch wood) but that too was a 1TB job and it failed quite suddenly within one year. As wowfun says, it can happen to any drive no matter how reputable the company.

 

[MacBiter]

Huh?!? Where is this Discord?

I'm a little taken aback by


Because this is the opposite of what he told me at the time.

If it does turn out to be true, presumably there will be a fair old while - a few years? - before sites start to fail due to the age of the browser?

But even so, it looks like Pale Moon will be a good alternative ongoing .

 

[Wowfunhappy]

If it does turn out to be true, presumably there will be a fair old while - a few years? - before sites start to fail due to the age of the browser?

Yes, although security will eventually be a concern. I may be able to patch certain vulnerabilities myself, it depends on what they are.