Microsoft is testing a new “super duper secure mode” for Microsoft Edge.
The tech giants are working on new security updates for its internet browser which will make it more secure than ever, according to a new blog post from the company’s browser vulnerability research team.
The new mode – which is currently in its early stages – is named the Super Duper Secure Mode, and works by turning off something called Just-In-Time (JIT) compilation in V8, Edge’s Javascript engine.
JIT is used to speed up browser performance by taking JavaScript and compiling it into machine code before it’s needed, and while the gains are impressive, JIT also creates many vulnerabilities and is easily exploited.
Microsoft Edge Vulnerability Research Lead Johnathan Norman explained in his blog post that in 2019, around 45 percent of common vulnerabilities and exposures were related to JIT, and pointed to data from Mozilla showing that over half of Chrome exploits in the wild hinged on a JIT bug.
Jonathan claims turning off JIT would “remove roughly half of the V8 bugs that must be fixed”, which would translate to fewer security updates and emergency patches.
Disabling JIT does result in significantly lower JavaScript benchmarks, but in other performance testing, Norman notes that most of Microsoft’s tests showed no or negligible changes when JIT was disabled and that users rarely noticed a difference in daily browsing.
Super Duper Secure Mode is set to be given an “official” name closer to its wider release date.
