Beta Release BraveVault for Kubuntu 60 day beta trial

[Victor M]

Download link: BraveVault for Kubuntu 60 day beta trial Follow link and press Ctrl-D.

To install: sudo bash bravevault-trial.sh install <surfing account> --online
You must make a secondary surfing account first

To fetch your downloaded file:
bv-export --list
bv-export <file name>
To upload a file: Put the file into /home/<surfing account>/BraveUploads/

Always use the surfing account to surf, NEVER with admin account.

BraveVault for Kubuntu 60 day trial​

A Different Approach to Defending Against Attackers​

Don't just block malicious websites. Make it harder for attackers to succeed.
Every time you browse the Internet, you may encounter malicious websites, compromised advertisements, fraudulent downloads, and software vulnerabilities that attackers can exploit.
Modern web browsers are extraordinarily complex applications, and serious security vulnerabilities continue to be discovered and corrected across successive versions. Even after extensive testing and security improvements, newly released browsers contain previously undiscovered flaws, including vulnerabilities that attackers could exploit. In other words, they are perpetually insecure.
Browser manufacturers have responded in part by accelerating their software release schedules. Chromium-based browsers, for example, have moved toward weekly security fixes and more frequent major releases. These changes help deliver corrections sooner, but they also highlight a fundamental problem: fixing known vulnerabilities does not eliminate vulnerabilities that have yet to be discovered.
Although browser developers employ secure programming practices, testing, the continuing discovery of serious flaws demonstrates the limitations of relying on software updates alone.
Attackers continuously develop new techniques, modify existing attacks, and discover previously unknown vulnerabilities. A browser can be fully updated and still be vulnerable to an attack that its developers have not yet identified.
BraveVault is designed around a different security objective: restricting what attackers can do if they manage to attack your browser.
Rather than relying exclusively on detecting threats using anti-malware DNS or waiting for the next security update, BraveVault combines preventive security controls, browser hardening, network restrictions, and anti-persistence measures to make several common attack techniques more difficult to execute.

What Makes BraveVault Different?​

1. Designed to Disrupt Attacker Command-and-Control Communications​

When attackers compromise a computer, they often try to establish a connection to an external command-and-control (C2) server.
This connection may allow attackers to send instructions, remotely control malicious software, download additional attack tools, or receive stolen information.
BraveVault is designed to restrict these communication channels.
Its security features include:

• Controls over outbound network connections.
• Restrictions on network protocols that may be abused for unauthorized communications.
• UDP traffic controls with provisions for supported video conferencing services.
• Network filtering intended to reduce communications with known malicious destinations.

The benefit: Attackers may have fewer options for controlling malicious software or communicating with an infected browsing environment.

2. Designed to Prevent Attackers from Establishing Persistence​

Attackers frequently want their malicious software to survive a browser restart, logout, or computer reboot.
To accomplish this, they may modify startup configurations, create background services, alter application settings, or establish other automatic execution mechanisms.
BraveVault incorporates anti-persistence measures designed to restrict unauthorized changes to selected locations commonly used for these purposes.
The benefit: Making persistence more difficult can reduce an attacker's ability to maintain access after the original attack has ended.

3. Designed to Prevent Unauthorized Privilege Escalation​

After compromising a browser, attackers may attempt to obtain administrative privileges to disable security protections, modify system files, or gain greater control over the computer.

BraveVault incorporates restrictions on privilege-elevation mechanisms and privileged operations, including controls over administrative authorization and programs that can execute with elevated privileges.
The benefit: Attackers who compromise the browser face additional barriers when attempting to obtain administrative control of the computer.

4. Designed to Combat Information-Stealing Malware
Information stealers are a major threat to Internet users.
Attackers use them to target:

• Website passwords and saved login information.
• Browser authentication cookies and session tokens.
• Banking and financial account information.
• Sensitive personal and business files.
• Information that could be used for account takeover.

BraveVault is designed to restrict unauthorized access to sensitive information outside the browser's permitted environment and limit opportunities for stolen data to be transmitted.
The benefit: Reduced opportunities for attackers to collect information from other parts of your computer or transfer it to external systems.

5. Designed to Restrict Unauthorized Software Execution​

A browser exploit may be only the beginning of an attack.
After gaining an initial foothold, attackers frequently attempt to run additional programs, command interpreters, malicious scripts, or downloaded attack tools.
BraveVault includes application execution controls designed to restrict unauthorized programs and certain forms of script execution.
These controls help prevent a browser compromise from automatically becoming an opportunity to execute arbitrary software.

The benefit: Attackers may find it more difficult to launch additional attack tools or expand an initial compromise.

6. Hardened Browser Configuration​

BraveVault employs a security-focused Brave browser configuration that reduces exposure to selected browser attack techniques.
Its designed protections include:

• JavaScript JIT restrictions: Reduce exposure to exploitation techniques targeting just-in-time compilation.
• JavaScript optimization restrictions: Limit selected optimization features that can increase the browser's attack surface.
• Browser extension restrictions: Reduce risks associated with malicious or compromised extensions.
• Developer Tools restrictions: Limit access to browser development functionality.
• Remote debugging restrictions: Reduce opportunities to misuse browser debugging interfaces.
• Managed security settings: Help prevent ordinary browser settings changes from weakening the intended configuration.

The benefit: Fewer browser capabilities available for attackers to misuse, while retaining core website functionality.

7. Restricted Communication with Desktop Services​

A compromised browser may attempt to interact with applications and services elsewhere on the computer.
Such interactions can create opportunities for attackers to access resources or invoke capabilities unrelated to normal browsing.
BraveVault is designed to minimize unnecessary communications between the browser and desktop services, while providing specifically controlled interfaces for required functionality.
The benefit: Fewer opportunities for a browser-based attack to reach unrelated desktop functions.

​

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Why Traditional Browser Protection Is Not Enough​

Antivirus products, browser reputation services, and malicious website blocklists are useful security measures. However, they cannot necessarily identify every new attack.
Attackers can change malware signatures, register new Internet domains, exploit previously unknown vulnerabilities, and develop new methods of bypassing detection.
BraveVault's design emphasizes an additional question:
Even if an attacker gets past the first line of defense, what can they actually accomplish?
BraveVault addresses that question by concentrating on five important attacker objectives:

Attacker objective	BraveVault's designed response
Establish remote control	Restrict command-and-control communication channels
Maintain access after a reboot	Protect selected persistence mechanisms
Steal personal or business information	Restrict access to unrelated data and unauthorized communications
Execute additional malware	Enforce application and script execution restrictions
Exploit browser functionality	Disable or restrict selected higher-risk browser capabilities

The objective is to make a successful attack more difficult by reducing the capabilities available to an attacker.

Security Designed for Real-World Threats​

BraveVault's design addresses recognizable categories of cyberattacks, including credential theft, information stealing, malware persistence, unauthorized program execution, and command-and-control communications.
Rather than relying entirely on identifying an attacker's tools, BraveVault is intended to restrict activities that many of those tools need to perform.

BraveVault​

Attackers Keep Changing Their Attacks. Make Their Job Harder.​

Traditional security often asks whether an attack can be detected.

BraveVault asks whether the attacker can accomplish their objective.

By restricting unauthorized execution, persistence, data access, dangerous browser features, and external communications, BraveVault is designed to create additional obstacles between an attempted browser exploit and a successful cyberattack.

BraveVault — More Than Browser Protection. Designed to Restrict What Attackers Can Do.

BraveVault does not guarantee immunity from attacks, malware, or information theft. Its protections are intended to reduce particular attack opportunities and depend on correct installation, configuration, and the threats encountered.

 

[Bot]

Download link: BraveVault for Kubuntu 60 day beta trial To install: sudo bash bravevault-trial.sh install --online You must make an secondary surfing account first BraveVault for Kubuntu 60 day trial A Different Approach to Defending Against Attackers Don't just block malicious websites. Make it har […]

Hi Victor. The security model is sensible: assume the browser may eventually be compromised, then use least privilege, isolation and egress controls to limit the damage. However, the current post describes design intentions, not evidence that the controls work as claimed. I would not recommend installing this on a daily-use machine yet.

A few boundaries should be made explicit:

• Outbound restrictions can disrupt some command-and-control traffic, but a compromised browser may still communicate over permitted HTTPS or other normal web traffic.
• A separate browsing account protects only data that account cannot access. Cookies, sessions, passwords and anything entered or opened inside that browsing account remain exposed to a browser compromise.
• Managed browser policies are useful hardening, but they are not themselves a security boundary. The important details are the OS mechanisms being used—AppArmor, namespaces, seccomp, filesystem permissions, nftables and so forth.
• Anti-persistence controls may stop an infection surviving a reboot, but they cannot reverse data theft that already occurred during the session.

The biggest immediate concern is distribution. The linked file is a compressed shell script, while the installation command gives the decompressed script unrestricted root access. sudo bash is not automatically malicious, but it means the installer can alter essentially anything on the system. The browser may be going into a vault, but the installer receives the keys to the building.

Before asking people to run it, I think the beta needs:

1. Public, version-controlled source code, rather than only a mutable Google Drive artifact.
2. A release version, SHA-256 hash and preferably a detached digital signature.
3. A complete list of files, policies, users, services and firewall rules it creates or changes.
4. Documentation for --online: contacted servers, transmitted data, telemetry and update behaviour.
5. A tested uninstall/rollback procedure, including what happens when the 60 days expire.
6. Exact supported Kubuntu and Brave versions.
7. Clarification about whether the project has any relationship to Brave Software.
8. Confirmation that the secondary account must be a standard account with no sudo access or unnecessary group memberships.

For early testing, use a disposable VM snapshot containing no personal files or real browser accounts. Disable shared folders and, where practical, access from the VM to the local network. The artifact can first be decompressed and examined without running it:

gzip -dk -- bravevault-trial.sh.gz
sha256sum bravevault-trial.sh.gz bravevault-trial.sh
shellcheck bravevault-trial.sh

The underlying idea is worth testing, but trust should come from auditable implementation and reproducible results, not the length of the feature list. A published threat model and test matrix would make this much easier to evaluate seriously.