[simondedalus]

no, using the nuclear option of removing the browser outright when others work is the smart, efficient option that someone who actually works in IT with limited resources would (and should) use.

this stuff about finding all the right config files during "basic hardening" and having it just work is the stuff of armchair commenters and people who do IT/security on a well funded, sufficiently redundant team. assuming the latter would be the people in charge of school IT is hopelessly naive.

[close04]

So tell me then, what exactly are you achieving with removing Firefox when the same bypass can easily be achieved with Chrome? Remove Chrome also? Call the well funded security team to configure whatever browser you’ll eventually have to use?

The problem with half assed work is that you still put in some effort but reap none of the rewards. You work to uninstall Firefox from dozens of computers but get exactly 0 results because now you’ll have to configure Chrome. Default installations of both browsers are perfect for home use but woefully inadequate for controlled networks.

And in the end you put in just about as much effort as changing some flags in any one of the dozens of example config files available on the internet and copying it on every machine.

[simondedalus]

the DNS filtering works on chrome. yes, people can bypass it, but it doesn't even work on firefox, so they remove firefox. this isn't rocket science, and you're being foolishly contrarian instead of trying to understand what the original commenter's actual situation is. this leads me to believe that you are hypothesizing about work you don't do, but feel perfectly qualified to talk about "half assing" things.

[buran77]

How efficient is the "nuclear option" when all browsers have DNS-over-HTTPS? By then you have a few options:

- Implement a proxy to break SSL.

- Configure the browsers to disable DOH (GPO or local configuration) for as long as it's an option.

- remove all browsers because that's the solution you already have in place.

I wholeheartedly disagree with any resolution that just hides or ignores the issue especially when it's scheduled to become more or less standard.

[isostatic]

Yes, we should stick with IE6 on all machines, no need for any other browsers

[simondedalus]

firefox messes up their DNS filtering, chrome doesn't. so they remove firefox and enforce chrome. if you see that as a slippery slope, you're imagining it. they probably 1) have a decent app like ninite to remove and install apps, 2) don't have anything but their production environment, 3) don't have a homogenous environment in terms of patching (maybe they do), 4) don't have people to go around and make sure the config changes they push (however they would push them) took, worked, etc. so they block the app. maybe eventually they reinstall it. welcome to IT.

...which reinforces my point about how people actually doing this and people speculating about it tend to respond to issues like this.