Safeer Browser 1.0.128 · Safeer OS 0.4.86 (Safeer Control 2.1.83) · safeer-webkit 1.0.128

Safeer Browser for Linux 1.0.128 · Safeer OS 0.4.86 (with Safeer Control 2.1.83)

Security fixes. An independent review found two ways in which a program already running under your account could have turned your administrator password into full control of the computer, and we fixed both. When Safeer installs an update, the administrator side now copies each package into its own folder, checks its SHA-256 from the signed update list on that copy and installs only the copy, so the file in your folder can no longer be swapped after you type the password. The Safeer Shield DNS rule is now written without a temporary file. The saved tabs and playback that Safeer OS restores after an update are read only from your own regular file. Our own research found a third problem, in the web engine of the .deb packages (safeer-webkit 1.0.127): the BOLT-optimised WebKit libraries were missing the marker for a non-executable stack, so the desktop, the browser and the web processes ran with an executable stack, which removes a standard protection against exploits. safeer-webkit 1.0.128 is rebuilt without that BOLT option; the build and the package test now refuse any library without the marker. Flatpak and AppImage were not affected. Each fix has a test that fails without it. A second independent review led to more hardening. The Safeer Link window and the window showing another device's screen now accept actions only from their own page, not from a frame embedded in it (so a frame could not pair a device or send taps to it). Safeer Agent sends your key to the language model over http:// only on your home network and never follows a redirect. The JBL add-on remembers the certificate of your sound bar when you turn it on and sends commands only to that device. Downloads from GitHub check every redirect, not just the last one. Safeer Link also gives a clear error when a device sends no certificate, logs settings it cannot read or write and addresses shared folders only by their exact number; database table names come only from a fixed list; and Safeer Control shows why installing the separate screen failed. A third review found smaller desktop fixes: the dock now also finds Flatpak apps installed only for your user, the dock and desktop helpers no longer look at other users' processes, and an empty XDG_CONFIG_HOME (or XDG_CACHE_HOME, XDG_DATA_HOME) is treated as unset, so settings never land in the current folder.

A whole-code review, so old bugs don't carry on. After these reviews we went through the entire code by class of bug, not just the changes, and fixed what we found, again each with a test that fails without the fix. Commands that need your administrator password always use full paths, so a program in your home folder cannot pose as pkexec or a system tool. Safeer Shield answers DNS within 0.4 seconds even when the encrypted upstream is slow; before, the system could quietly switch to your router's DNS and stay there, bypassing the Shield. A page that asks for many names at once no longer switches DNS to unencrypted for 30 seconds, and the Shield counter now also counts what the YouTube and AdGuard protections remove. Splet treats only its own home page as home, media servers (Jellyfin, Emby, Plex, Kodi, TVHeadend) never send your login after a redirect to another server, and helper downloads (speech recognition, torrent engine) use https on every step. In Safeer Link, removing a device now ends its access at once – its tokens, sessions and open connections – instead of after up to 24 hours; pairing (also of a second Safeer app on the same device) can no longer take the identity of a device that is already in Link or of this computer, and only devices that are in Link can rename devices. A file name sent by another device can no longer write outside the intended folder, a received program or script is only shown in its folder, never opened, and the file, screen and sound servers can no longer be held up by silent connections or ones that send data drop by drop. Converting a video for your TV reaches only public addresses or your home network, never this computer itself, and your device key goes only to a Safeer device whose certificate is pinned; it now also works with HLS playlists and with links that redirect. Safeer OS and Safeer Browser no longer overwrite each other's settings: closing the browser could undo a setting you had just changed in Safeer OS (for example your DNS choice), and a save interrupted halfway could reset all settings at the next start. Each program now saves only what it changed, atomically, and a settings file that cannot be read is kept aside instead of being replaced with defaults.

This release also contains everything from 1.0.127, which was published on GitHub only:

Safeer Browser on GTK 4. The browser is rebuilt on GTK 4 and WebKitGTK 6.0. The Flatpak carries our own patched WebKitGTK 2.54.1 and libsoup 3.8.0, and Safeer DRM for protected video – it starts only after you click Play in Safeer DRM and never without the site's permission. Safeer DRM is now part of every package (.deb, Flatpak, AppImage) and is no longer downloaded in the background after start. Google's Widevine module is fetched automatically from Google's servers the first time you play protected video – you install nothing.

Privacy like Firefox. Tracking protection in three levels (Standard, Strict, Custom) and a shield to turn it off for one site; per-site permissions (camera, microphone, location, notifications, autoplay, protected content); choose your DNS-over-HTTPS provider; clear browsing data, also on exit. Unwanted pop-ups are blocked – sign-in and payment windows still open. A pop-up that opens empty and then jumps to another site is blocked too.

A real browser. Downloads to your Downloads folder with a question before running programs; find with a match counter; print; full screen; mute a tab; zoom; links to apps (e-mail, phone, magnet) open after you confirm; network and certificate error pages in six languages; offer to make Safeer your default browser.

Media Center, redesigned. A left menu with your real sources, a Home page with Continue watching, Recently added, Most played and Favourites, and a now-playing bar at the bottom. Automatic playlists from your own music (Most played, Not heard for a while, genres, artists, Discover) – made on your computer, no cloud. Hide what you don't use from the menu. Play on … sends music to a network speaker (DLNA) or to your devices in Safeer Link. Audio tracks, audio and subtitle delay, subtitles from a file or the web, equaliser. The film and series catalogue loads twice as fast; live TV shows every channel logo and RTV SLO plays again. Login tokens of your media servers (Jellyfin, Navidrome, Plex …) are never stored in playlists or sent to other devices; Jellyfin 12 is supported.

One desktop, one process. Safeer OS, Safeer Control, Safeer Link, the Media Center, the player and the web all run in one process; the desktop shell runs next to it in its own supervised process and comes back in under a second if it stops. At idle the whole desktop uses about 470 MiB on the test PC (each web chat you add in Messages, such as Gmail, adds its own web page: about 590 MiB measured for Gmail). The desktop speaks six languages, uses one colour theme, works with the keyboard and the TV remote, and now has everything the previous desktop had: file actions, Continue here, Show on …, voice and notes in search, largest files, dock editing. Notifications go one way, settings for Link, the web and the desktop are in Safeer OS Settings, and the desktop widget shows what is playing.

Linux Mint. The desktop no longer hides behind the Mint panel or the dock; a mouse applet in the panel replaces the misleading battery icon on desktop PCs.

Our WebKit everywhere, and faster. GTK 4 is the default everywhere, and the .deb packages now carry the same patched WebKitGTK 2.54.1 and libsoup 3.8.0 as the Flatpak. It is built with Clang 22, ThinLTO and profile-guided optimisation (PGO), and in the .deb also optimised with BOLT. On our test PC (Intel Core i5-4590), Speedometer 3.1 went from 8.2 with our earlier GCC build to 11.1–11.4 with PGO and 11.9 with PGO and BOLT; BOLT also adds about 2 % on JetStream and 3 % on MotionMark. Our WebKit fix stops pages with many backdrop-filter layers (for example www.24ur.com) from eating memory and a whole CPU core. WebKit has accepted it (324100@main) and it is in the WebKitGTK 2.54 branch, so it also reaches other WebKitGTK users with their next update.

Tabs like a modern browser. Tabs shrink instead of breaking the layout, show the site icon and the full title on hover, and sit in the window's title bar. Web pages follow the system's dark mode (you can change it).

DNS without limits. Safeer Shield is the default DNS (blocks ads and threats, never challenge pages such as Cloudflare or hCaptcha), with Quad9, Cloudflare, Google, AdGuard and OpenDNS over encrypted DNS, your own address, or off – and an automatic fallback if a provider fails.

Your accounts in the Media Center. Sign in to YouTube once (in Splet, several accounts) and your playlists are available on all your linked devices. Spotify playlists, liked songs and podcasts play in our player with our controls, and Safeer Shield mutes and skips audio ads; signing in with Google lets you pick the Google account. Twitch plays in our player without inserted ads. Sign out of any of them inside Safeer OS.

A fuller Media Center. Home now has discovery shelves (popular films and series, music, your YouTube and Spotify playlists, Twitch live, radio); YouTube plays inside the Media Center window; playlists are shown as track lists; search is much faster and shows one card per title with the best stream; cards show quality, language and source. Adult add-ons appear only in the Private category, only when you turn it on and only on that device. Play on … is also in the video window, and picture and sound stay in sync on network speakers (adjustable delay).

Messages. Archive, delete, mark read or unread, star, move or label right in the list, several at once, with Undo; reply from the list without opening the conversation. The messages panel in the top bar can mark a message read or unread, mark it important or delete it (with Undo).

Desktop. Safeer Browser instead of Firefox in the dock, one Show desktop button, distinct icons for Messages and Splet.

Icons you can tell apart. Safeer Shield now has its own icon in the top panel next to Messages: it shows whether the Shield is on, off or has a problem, with the number of blocked requests; click it for Shield settings, or turn it on and off from its menu. The Linux Mint update icon in the panel is now a circular arrow instead of a shield (with the Papirus and the Mint-Y icons), so it is no longer mistaken for Safeer Shield. Safeer Control shows a computer and a phone in the panel instead of a shield. Safeer Browser has its own icon (a globe with the Safeer S), so it is no longer the same as Safeer OS.

Your own scripts in the Media Center. In Customize menu → My scripts you can import JavaScript (.js) and shell (.sh) files yourself. JavaScript runs in the Spotify page when Spotify starts (off until you switch it on, no access to Safeer OS itself); a shell script runs only when you press Run, with your own permissions, for at most 60 seconds, and its output is shown. Safeer does not supply or review scripts; what you import is your responsibility, and you confirm a warning before every import.

Spotify and ads. Shield mutes an ad on a free account and the music carries on afterwards; Safeer no longer blocks or replaces Spotify's ad requests (that stalled the player after an ad). Spotify's terms forbid avoiding ads, and Safeer does not promise to hide them.

Small fixes. Settings search finds Network connections when you type »wifi« and hides the volume slider like every other setting that does not match. The update note on Home shows only when there is an update. Hidden Safeer OS windows no longer refresh the clock, the Shield counter, sound, network, devices and the message list in the background; they catch up as soon as you show them.

Hide shelves. Automatic playlists and Recently added on Home can be hidden for good (button Hide, bring them back under Customize menu); hidden shelves are not loaded.

First start and the way back. A new Safeer OS installation opens a short guide: desktop language (six languages, the system language by default), optional sign-in to YouTube, Spotify and Twitch on their own pages, Safeer Shield, and linking a device with Safeer Link – every step can be skipped, and the guide is in Settings to run again. Existing users do not get it on update. Back to Cinnamon in Settings (or safeer-os --nazaj-na-cinnamon in a terminal) stops Safeer OS from starting at sign-in and restores the Mint panel, dock and look you had before – no uninstalling, no password, your data stays; opening Safeer OS from the menu offers to bring it back.

Stability. Idle and unanswered network connections are closed after 10 seconds, so they no longer pile up and crash the desktop; Safeer Link keeps listening even after a temporary error. The desktop no longer stutters every 10 seconds when no Hub is connected, and starting a magnet stream, a handover or loading dock icons no longer freezes it. The side dock comes back by itself if it closes or crashes (at most three times in ten minutes). Network speakers keep playing when the TV turns on and grabs the speaker by itself (HDMI-CEC) – if you switch to the TV yourself, your choice wins. JetStream 3.0 runs to the end again: web pages now see your real language instead of »C«, and a page may use up to half of your RAM (was a quarter) – the memory guard now stops only a page whose memory keeps growing (a real leak), not a demanding page with a short peak.