Powerful extensions do not need powerful code

A proposal for the Gosub browser's extension system reframes permissions as explicit, composable capabilities instead of Chrome's flat permission list, aiming to keep Manifest V3's security gains without sacrificing powerful extensions like ad blockers. Rather than granting broad API access, Gosub translates manifests into scoped capabilities (e.g., filtering, content_script, network.egress), calculates what combinations of permissions actually enable, and surfaces that in install dialogs with warning tiers. A native filter engine called baleen runs ad-block list syntax directly in the browser (not extension code), reportedly matching 719,000 rules in about 7 µs per request, faster than Brave's engine. The work is a design prototype with a Rust translator tested against real Chrome Web Store manifests, but no actual browser implementation yet.

Source: https://adayinthelifeof.nl/2026/08/23/powerful-extensions-do-not-need-powerful-code. 8 Sync News only summarizes and links out; content copyright belongs to the authors and original sources.