Websites can detect devtools is active

aMerryElk — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 20:42:55 GMT

A few websites have started including javascript that can detect when devtools are open, thus making it harder to verify their activity among other things.

In most cases it seems that they implement the project `disable-devtool`, which uses the detection methods found here: https://github.com/theajack/disable-devtool/tree/master/src/detector/sub-detector

An example of a site using this in the wild is vidsrc.to.

This ability to detect devtools has been opened seems like unintended behaviour and counter to the user's best interest, as websites can change their behaviour to avoid detection of unwanted activity or even just prevent inspection altogether.

My hope is that preventing detection is a relatively simple matter and that the Firefox team decides to fix this behaviour.

Re: Websites can detect devtools is active

jscher2000 — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 23:44:07 GMT

The developers did address at least one annoying thing some sites do, which is to run a debugger statement that locks up the devtools when they are opened. To bypass that, in about:config, set the following preference to false:

devtools.debugger.pause-on-debugger-statement

Regarding that library on Github, I saw a thread for how to prevent it from loading over on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/17jx5ia/how_are_we_supposed_to_counter_this/

But more generally, it's difficult to block standard script commands that can be used for arguably abusive purposes.

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Websites can detect devtools is active

Re: Websites can detect devtools is active