58 lines
2.3 KiB
Markdown
58 lines
2.3 KiB
Markdown
# Browsec
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Browsec is an independently governed Firefox downstream exploring plural,
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user-controlled trust for TLS certificates and browser extensions. It treats
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the conventional global Web PKI as one trust provider among several and allows
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narrowly scoped local and community trust decisions.
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The project is currently developing **TrustLab**, a browser-neutral JavaScript
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testbed for trust plugins, immutable TLS facts, append-only decision journals,
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and scoped Boolean trust verdicts.
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## Names and identity
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The project and its principal components are named as follows:
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- **Browsec** is the browser project: an independently governed Firefox
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downstream built around plural, user-controlled trust.
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- **Velvet Hammer** is Browsec's trust engine. It combines a calm,
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comprehensible interface with strict and uncompromising security semantics.
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- **TrustLab** is the browser-neutral research tool and testbed in which the
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engine, plugins, diagnostics, and policy rules are developed against both
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synthetic and live TLS evidence.
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- **Browsec Trust API** is the rigid interface through which trust plugins
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observe evidence, advise the decision process, or—when explicitly granted
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authority—return scoped Boolean verdicts.
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The preferred engine presentation is:
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> **Velvet Hammer** — *A plural trust engine for Browsec*
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Its emblem should be restrained rather than cartoonish: a polished spherical
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hammer head and short handle, possibly meeting or resting above a certificate
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chain link. The image represents smooth interaction around an inflexible
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security boundary—not aggression.
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The name also gives us a small working vocabulary: a *Velvet verdict*, a
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*Hammer rule*, and *TrustLab powered by Velvet Hammer*. One sentence captures
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the engine's governing temperament:
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> The hammer permits no silent widening of scope.
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And its project motto keeps the same principle courteous:
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> If one must be struck by security policy, let it be by a respectable velvet
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> hammer: precise, accountable, and courteous enough to explain why.
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## Project documents
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- [Coarse-grained concept](CONCEPT.md)
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- [Architecture decisions](ARCHITECTURE.md)
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- [Certificate Investigator design](DESIGN.md)
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- [TrustLab](trustlab/README.md)
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## Collaborators
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- **sergeych** — project creator, security architecture, and implementation
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- **Codex (OpenAI)** — AI design and implementation collaborator
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