Google has a hidden browser inside the settings

wet_lettuce@beehaw.org to Technology@beehaw.org – 75 points –
Google has a secret browser hidden inside the settings
matan-h.com

A dev recently discovered a browser built into the settings (for any google app that lets you edit settings). From there you can bypass parental controls or enterprise restrictions.

This is a pretty exciting "extra feature", Google!

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I have a memory of something similar at a travel tourism kiosk. Kiosk was locked to their webpage. Right clicked an image, chose "save as", navigated to something with a folder, right clicked and chose "Open in New Window" (might be misrembering -- older version of windows) to pop up Windows Explorer. Windows Explorer, at the time, embedded Internet Explorer 4 if you typed a URL in the address bar, so off the races I was.

Life before smartphones, man.

The older versions of IE back in the Windows 9X era would essentially turn into Windows Explorer if you put a local file path into them. I remember using this exploit back in the day on our school computers that ran a locked down version of Windows where you couldn't browse anything in Windows Explorer beyond your personal network folder. I found that by typing C:/ into the IE address bar it would turn IE into Windows Explorer mode and from there I had full access to the C drive and could even open up the folder tree sidebar thing and browse the local network, finding all sorts of folders that I wasn't supposed to be able to access.

Right! Just typing C:\Windows\command.com in the address bar was usually enough to completely control a system :)

Haha, yes! Sounds about right. Someone could create a puzzle game where you trying to escape a vendor kiosk and it gets progressively more complex as you go on.