Comodo Dragon is a

freeware Freeware is software, often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the free ...

web browser A web browser, often shortened to browser, is an application for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's scr ...

. It is based on

Chromium Chromium is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in Group 6 element, group 6. It is a steely-grey, Luster (mineralogy), lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal. Chromium ...

and is produced by

Comodo Group Xcitium (formerly Comodo Security Solutions Inc.) is a cybersecurity company, including Zero Trust cybersecurity, based in Bloomfield, New Jersey, United States. In 2022, the company rebranded as Xcitium. History The company was founded in 1 ...

. Sporting a similar interface to

Google Chrome Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, an ...

, Dragon does not implement Chrome's user tracking and some other potentially privacy-compromising features, replacing them with its own user tracking implementations, and provides additional

security Security is protection from, or resilience against, potential harm (or other unwanted coercion). Beneficiaries (technically referents) of security may be persons and social groups, objects and institutions, ecosystems, or any other entity or ...

measures, such as indicating the authenticity and relative strength of a website's

Secure Sockets Layer Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a cryptographic protocol designed to provide communications security over a computer network, such as the Internet. The protocol is widely used in applications such as email, instant messaging, and voice over IP, ...

(SSL) certificate.

Features

Upon installation, Comodo Dragon offers the opportunity to configure either the Comodo Dragon or the user's entire

computer A computer is a machine that can be Computer programming, programmed to automatically Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic set ...

to use Comodo's own DNS servers instead of the user's

Internet service provider An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, no ...

. Comodo Dragon performs additional checks on the SSL

digital certificate In cryptography, a public key certificate, also known as a digital certificate or identity certificate, is an electronic document used to prove the validity of a public key. The certificate includes the public key and information about it, informa ...

s of secure

website A website (also written as a web site) is any web page whose content is identified by a common domain name and is published on at least one web server. Websites are typically dedicated to a particular topic or purpose, such as news, educatio ...

s, and informs users if a site's certificate may be of insufficient strength. It includes an on-demand site inspector designed to determine if a site hosts malicious code. Instead of Google Updater, Comodo Dragon features its own built-in updater. If Dragon is uninstalled, users are given the option of keeping Dragon's cache and

cookie A cookie is a sweet biscuit with high sugar and fat content. Cookie dough is softer than that used for other types of biscuit, and they are cooked longer at lower temperatures. The dough typically contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of ...

files or deleting them. In addition, the following

features are removed or disabled in Dragon: * Google user tracking * Automatic access to

Google Search Google Search (also known simply as Google or Google.com) is a search engine operated by Google. It allows users to search for information on the World Wide Web, Web by entering keywords or phrases. Google Search uses algorithms to analyze an ...

on startup for users with Google as default search engine *

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

-hosted error pages when a server is not present * Automatic

address bar In a web browser, the address bar (also location bar or URL bar) is the element that shows the current URL. The user can type a URL into it to navigate to a chosen website. In most modern browsers, non-URLs are automatically sent to a search eng ...

search suggestions * Bug tracking system, which sends information about crashes or errors * Built-in

PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

viewer and

Adobe Flash Player Adobe Flash Player (known in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Google Chrome as Shockwave Flash) is a discontinuedExcept in China, where it continues to be used, as well as Harman for enterprise users. computer program for viewing multimedia ...

which is sandboxed * Google Native Client (NaCl) support * H.264

codec A codec is a computer hardware or software component that encodes or decodes a data stream or signal. ''Codec'' is a portmanteau of coder/decoder. In electronic communications, an endec is a device that acts as both an encoder and a decoder o ...

* Google Safe Browsing which blocks malicious and

phishing Phishing is a form of social engineering and a scam where attackers deceive people into revealing sensitive information or installing malware such as viruses, worms, adware, or ransomware. Phishing attacks have become increasingly sophisticate ...

sites *

Google Docs Google Docs is an online word processor and part of the free, web-based Google Docs Editors suite offered by Google. Google Docs is accessible via a web browser as a web-based application and is also available as a mobile app on Android and iO ...

, Sheets, and Slides which open various document and spreadsheet formats *

Google Translate Google Translate is a multilingualism, multilingual neural machine translation, neural machine translation service developed by Google to translation, translate text, documents and websites from one language into another. It offers a web applic ...

, which automatically translates webpages in foreign languages

Security issues

A Google engineer publicly disclosed a serious

security vulnerability Vulnerabilities are flaws or weaknesses in a system's design, implementation, or management that can be exploited by a malicious actor to compromise its security. Despite a system administrator's best efforts to achieve complete correctness, vir ...

in Comodo Dragon after Comodo failed to respond to the issue within the 90 days Google provides software vendors. The advisory warns users who install Comodo Dragon that Dragon replaces their default browser, hijacks DNS settings, and disables the same-origin policy, which exposes users by allowing malicious websites to access private data. Comodo's first attempt to patch the issue was shown to be ineffective. Comodo subsequently claimed the problems were fixed.

Comodo license and tracking

Comodo tracks each user's time spent using the browser, its operating system, and browser inquiries about

certificate revocation In public key cryptography, a public key certificate, certificate may be revoked before it expires, which signals that it is no longer valid. Without revocation, an attacker could exploit such a compromised or misissued certificate until expiry. ...

, which reveal the sites visited. Users can opt whether they also track activity and use it in more detail than that. Comodo and its partners use cookies and

Google Analytics Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic and also mobile app traffic and events, currently as a platform inside the Google Marketing Platform brand. Google launched the service in N ...

. "Comodo may disclose data to its affiliates and business partners who have established similar privacy standards." Their privacy statement says that only in California is the

IP address An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is assigned to a device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. IP addresses serve two main functions: network interface i ...

considered personal information. Comodo creates log files which track users, identifiable by cookie or browser features (and IP address outside California): "Comodo uses log files non-personally identifiable information to ... track movements throughout the site ... and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use." The browser is supported by ads which "relate to the content of the information as part of the Product or queries made through the Product." They include many other software products, each with its own license. The license has common terms about complying with subpoenas and interception orders, against

reverse engineering Reverse engineering (also known as backwards engineering or back engineering) is a process or method through which one attempts to understand through deductive reasoning how a previously made device, process, system, or piece of software accompl ...

, copying and sub-licensing, and disclaiming warranties and liability. The license also requires disputes to be settled by arbitration in New Jersey. Users must give accurate registration information, and pay Comodo's costs " that, directly or indirectly, are based on your breach of this agreement, the information provided by you, or your infringement on the rights of a third party."

References

External links

* {{web browsers 2010 software Cloud clients Windows web browsers Portable software

Dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...

Companies' terms of service

Features

Security issues

Comodo license and tracking

See also

References

Further reading

External links