Pale Moon browser notes

Last updated : 19/9/2023 (Incomplete, additions required)

Introduction

My personal notes on Pale Moon - desktop's least terrible browser & the only browser I would even consider using before everything else. Note that there's no mention of either White Star (a Pale Moon fork aimed at FreeBSD & MacOS by dbsoft, a Pale Moon contributor) or Basilisk (Pale Moon with a more Firefox-esque defaults; research required) at the moment.

Default connections

Default connections are found in Spyware Watchdog's old report, with summary listed below.

• palemoon.start.me (Pale Moon default home page) connects to Go-ogle analytics.
• Various auto-updates that can be disabled from either GUI and/or about:config
• Search suggestion enabled by default, sending request to search engine for every letter. Default search engine is DuckDuckGo.
• Automatic OCSP querying, can (optionally) be disabled in GUI & about:config

Mitigating default connections

These mitigations should be done at 1st launch after installing Pale Moon, preferably while not connected to the internet.

• Pale Moon Spyware Mitigation Guide (old)

Personal configurations

• Add-ons
• ηMatrix (mandatory, notes incoming)
• HTTPS Inquirer
• HTTPS Always
• PaleFill
• Pale Moon Commander (optional, only necessary if you know what you're doing with this)
• Proxy Privacy Ruler (optional; for browsing darknet with Pale Moon)
• URL Rewriter
• about:config
These modifications won't reset if done after Pale Moon has internet access for the first time.

• geo:enabled : false
• network.dns.blockDotOnion : false (optional, necessary for browsing darknet with Pale Moon)
• OCSP (optional, since OCSP is a security feature and/or potential privacy breach)
• services.sync.prefs.sync.security.OCSP.enabled : 0
• security.OCSP.GET.enabled : false
• security.OCSP.require : 0
• security.OCSP.enabled : 0 (linked to Preferences > Advanced > Certificates > "Use OCSP to confirm the current validity of certificates" option)
• extensions.blocklist.enabled : false (optional, only necessary if you're looking forward to install blocklisted extensions - none of the mentioned ones here are blocked at the moment of writing (13/4/2023))
• Preferences
• General
• When Pale Moon starts : Show windows & tabs from last time
• Home Page : blanked out (preferably before letting Pale Moon access internet)
• Downloads : Always ask me where to save files
• Tabs
Don't warn when closing multiple tabs; always show tab bar

• Content
• Block pop-up windows
• Disabled WASM
• Applications
Left to stock

• Privacy
• Custom settings for history
• Don't remember browsing & download history
• Don't remember search & form history
• Accept only 1st-party cookies until Pale Moon is closed
• No Do Not Track header (disabled "Tell sites not to share or sell my data")
• Security
HSTS enabled, everything else disabled

• Advanced
• General : Autoscrolling enabled, hardware accel enabled, native UserAgent, no captive portal
• Network : Verbatim default
• Update : All disabled (add-on updates too, in about:addons)
• Certificates : All OCSP settings disabled
• Scrolling : Verbatim default
• Search engine : 4get.ca (load page, go to search engine bar & add it from there)

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