Security News > 2020 > February > Google Chrome to start blocking downloads served via HTTP

Google has announced a timetable for phasing out insecure file downloads in the Chrome browser, starting with desktop version 81 due out next month.

Known in jargon as 'mixed content downloads', these are files such as software executables, documents and media files offered from secure HTTPS websites over insecure HTTP connections.

Google will introduce this change gradually rather than all at once, at first offering warnings about executable downloads via HTTP in versions 81 and 82 of the desktop browser.

Doc and PDFs, images, videos and music files until, by Chrome version 86 in October, all downloads via HTTP will be blocked.

More recently, Chrome took aim at mixed content such as images, audio and videos allowed to load insecurely over HTTP. Apart from creating security issues, this could also be confusing for users who were confronted with 'insecure content' warnings despite the visited site using HTTPS. That initiative is still ongoing with blocking of images that don't load over HTTPS due to start from Chrome version 81, due later this month.

News URL

https://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2020/02/10/google-chrome-to-start-blocking-downloads-served-via-http/