On 10/23/23 11:54 AM, Dale Curtis wrote:
Hmm, not sure why the description got reflowed, here's the formatted
version:
Chrome will deprecate and remove support for the Theora video codec in
desktop Chrome due to emerging security risks. Theora's low (and now
often incorrect) usage no longer justifies support for most users.
Notes:
- Zero day attacks against media codecs have spiked.
- Usage has fallen below measurable levels in UKM.
- The sites we manually inspected before levels dropped off were
incorrectly preferring Theora over more modern codecs like VP9.
Meaning, once Theora support is gone, video playback continues to work
for all sites you inspected because media source selection found
something else playable?
- It's never been supported by Safari or Chrome on Android.
- An ogv.js polyfill exists for the sites that still need Theora support.
- We are not removing support for ogg containers.
Our plan is to begin escalating experiments turning down Theora
support in M120. During this time users can reactivate Theora support
via chrome://flags/#theora-video-codec if needed.
The tentative timeline for this is (assuming everything goes smoothly):
- ~Oct 23, 2023: begin 50/50 canary dev experiments.
- ~Nov 1-6, 2023: begin 50/50 beta experiments.
- ~Dec 6, 2023: begin 1% stable experiments.
Even though UKM appears to be exceedingly low, if you're not 100%
confident this will be a no-op, you might consider beginning the stable
experiment after the new year (and many production freezes).
- ~Jan 8, 2024: begin 50% stable experiments.
- ~Jan 16th, 2024: launch at 100%.
- ~Feb 2024: remove code and chrome://flag in M123.
- ~Mar 2024: Chrome 123 will roll to stable.
- dale
On Mon, Oct 23, 2023 at 8:52 AM Dale Curtis <dalecur...@chromium.org>
wrote:
Contact emails
dalecur...@chromium.org
Explainer
None
Specification
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theora
Summary
Chrome will deprecate and remove support for the Theora video
codec in desktop Chrome due to emerging security risks. Theora's
low (and now often incorrect) usage no longer justifies support
for most users. Notes: - Zero day attacks against media codecs
have spiked. - Usage has fallen below measurable levels in UKM. -
The sites we manually inspected before levels dropped off were
incorrectly preferring Theora over more modern codecs like VP9. -
It's never been supported by Safari or Chrome on Android. - An
ogv.js polyfill exists for the sites that still need Theora
support. - We are not removing support for ogg containers. Our
plan is to begin escalating experiments turning down Theora
support in M120. During this time users can reactivate Theora
support via chrome://flags/#theora-video-codec if needed. The
tentative timeline for this is (assuming everything goes
smoothly): - ~Oct 23, 2023: begin 50/50 canary dev experiments. -
~Nov 1-6, 2023: begin 50/50 beta experiments. - ~Dec 6, 2023:
begin 1% stable experiments. - ~Jan 8, 2024: begin 50% stable
experiments. - ~Jan 16th, 2024: launch at 100%. - ~Feb 2024:
remove code and chrome://flag in M123. - ~Mar 2024: Chrome 123
will roll to stable.
Blink component
Internals>Media>Codecs
<https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/list?q=component:Internals%3EMedia%3ECodecs>
Search tags
theora <https://chromestatus.com/features#tags:theora>, vp3
<https://chromestatus.com/features#tags:vp3>, video
<https://chromestatus.com/features#tags:video>
TAG review
None
TAG review status
Not applicable
Risks
Interoperability and Compatibility
Sites which only provide a Theora video source will no longer have
video playback. These sites would already be broken in Chrome for
Android or Safari.
/Gecko/: Under consideration Private discussions. I asked if
they'd like an RFP for this, but haven't yet heard back.
/WebKit/: Shipped/Shipping (https://caniuse.com/ogv) Safari never
shipped support for Theora.
/Web developers/: Mixed signals Most developers are not likely to
have an opinion, some may lament the loss of one of the first open
codecs on the web.
/Other signals/:
Security
Security positive change -- removes support for a complicated
binary parsing and decoding mechanism.
WebView application risks
Does this intent deprecate or change behavior of existing APIs,
such that it has potentially high risk for Android WebView-based
applications?
None, never supported on Android or WebView.
Debuggability
Can be debugged through media dev tools or chrome://media-internals.
Will this feature be supported on all six Blink platforms
(Windows, Mac, Linux, Chrome OS, Android, and Android
WebView)?
Yes
Not currently supported on Chrome for Android.
Is this feature fully tested by web-platform-tests
<https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/main/docs/testing/web_platform_tests.md>?
Yes
As part of pre-work, I've switched all tests using Theora (of
which there were hundreds) over to using VP8/VP9 where appropriate.
Flag name on chrome://flags
TheoraVideoCodec
Finch feature name
TheoraVideoCodec
Requires code in //chrome?
False
Tracking bug
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1489034
Estimated milestones
DevTrial on desktop 120
Anticipated spec changes
Open questions about a feature may be a source of future web
compat or interop issues. Please list open issues (e.g. links to
known github issues in the project for the feature specification)
whose resolution may introduce web compat/interop risk (e.g.,
changing to naming or structure of the API in a
non-backward-compatible way).
None
Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status
https://chromestatus.com/feature/5158654475239424
This intent message was generated by Chrome Platform Status
<https://chromestatus.com/>.
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