HackerReposA FIELD GUIDE TO OPEN SOURCE
ProSponsor the shelf♧ 0
← Back to top all-time
gorhill
uBlock
JavaScript2014–2026
gorhill / uBlock

uBlock

uBlock Origin - An efficient blocker for Chromium and Firefox. Fast and lean.

Web DevelopmentSecurity & Privacy
Explore on GitHubRead Hacker News discussions
554Distinct people
875Mentions
11Explicit recommenders
69.3KGitHub stars
REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

uBlock Origin - An efficient blocker for Chromium and Firefox. Fast and lean.

GitHub

Where it is used

  • LibreWolf — LibreWolf includes uBlock Origin in the browser. Source
  • Mullvad Browser — Mullvad Browser uses uBlock Origin to block third-party trackers. It includes this extension as part of its tracker-blocking approach. Source

What people are saying

You should look into the homepage linked from there https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock because that's were it's really from, and not some recommendation via. Especially their…

LargoLasskhyfv used a recommendation phrase. 12 indexed comments match. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.

No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 6:36:16 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by year875 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2014-06-24 09:19:53 UTC to 2026-10-13 19:36:47 UTC.

0501002014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 24 mentions; 4 submissions, 20 comments20142015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 127 mentions; 13 submissions, 114 comments2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 70 mentions; 3 submissions, 67 comments2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 53 mentions; 2 submissions, 51 comments2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 67 mentions; 2 submissions, 65 comments2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 59 mentions; 4 submissions, 55 comments2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 76 mentions; 3 submissions, 73 comments20202021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 85 mentions; 5 submissions, 80 comments2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 92 mentions; 7 submissions, 85 comments2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 99 mentions; 9 submissions, 90 comments2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 52 mentions; 3 submissions, 49 comments2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 45 mentions; 2 submissions, 43 comments2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC to 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC (exclusive): 26 mentions; 0 submissions, 26 comments. Incomplete calendar period.2026*

* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges
UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
PeriodStart (UTC)End (exclusive, UTC)MentionsSubmissionsComments
20142014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC24420
20152015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC12713114
20162016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC70367
20172017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC53251
20182018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC67265
20192019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC59455
20202020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC76373
20212021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC85580
20222022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC92785
20232023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC99990
20242024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC52349
20252025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC45243
2026 (partial)2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC26026

From the project README

An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 12, 2026.

Read the project’s introduction
uBlock Origin (uBO) Browser Install from ... Status Firefox Add-ons uBO works best on Firefox Edge Add-ons "Moving the Microsoft Edge extensions ecosystem forward with Manifest Version 3": "Beginning in August 2026, Microsoft Edge will start the consumer transition away from Manifest Version 2 (MV2) extensions and toward MV3. Our goal is to complete the consumer transition by the end of 2026, with enterprise deprecation following in early 2027." Opera Add-ons Removed "Manifest V2 support timeline": "Aug 31st 2026: All remaining Manifest V2 extensions removed from the Chrome Web Store" About Google Chrome's "This extension may soon no longer be supported" Thunderbird Add-ons No longer updated and stuck at 1.49.2. Later versions require "GitHub - Releases". GitHub - Releases Stable and development versions on Firefox, Chromium MV2, and Thunderbird. Must be placed manually into web browsers; the Chromium and Thunderbird versions usually won't auto-update. Related: uBlock Origin Lite uBlock Origin (uBO) is a CPU and memory-efficient wide-spectrum content blocker for Chromium and Firefox. It blocks ads, trackers, coin miners, popups, annoying anti-blockers, malware sites, etc., by default using EasyList, EasyPrivacy, Peter Lowe's Blocklist, Online Malicious URL Blocklist, and uBO filter lists. There are many other lists available to block even more. Hosts files are also supported. uBO uses the EasyList filter syntax and extends the syntax to work with custom rules and filters. You may easily unselect any preselected filter lists if you think uBO blocks too much. For reference, Adblock Plus installs with only EasyList, ABP filters, and Acceptable Ads enabled by default. It is important to note that using a blocker is NOT theft. Do not fall for this creepy idea. The ultimate logical consequence of blocking = theft is the criminalization of the inalienable right to privacy. Ads, "unintrusive" or not, are just the visible portion of the privacy-invading means entering your browser when you visit most sites. uBO's primary goal is to help users neutralize these privacy-invading methods in a way that welcomes those users who do not wish to use more technical means. Documentation Installation Firefox Chromium Thunderbird All Programs Enterprise Deployment Release History Translations About Documentation Basic Mode Advanced Mode The simple popup user interface for an install-it-and-forget-it type of installation that is configured optimally by default. The advanced popup user interface includes a point-and-click firewall that is configurable on a per-site basis. Visit the Wiki for documentation. For support, questions, or help, visit /r/uBlockOrigin. Installation Required Permissions Firefox Firefox Add-ons Development Builds uBO works best on Firefox and is available for desktop and Android versions. Chromium Chrome Web Store: Removed on 2026-08-31 Microsoft Edge Add-ons (Published by Nicole Rolls until version 1.62. Ownership transfer at version 1.64.) Opera Add-ons uBO should be compatible with any Chromium-based browser. Thunderbird Thunderbird Add-ons In Thunderbird, uBlock Origin does not affect emails, just feeds. All Programs Do NOT use uBO with any other content blocker. uBO performs as well as or better than most popular blockers. Other blockers can prevent uBO's privacy or anti-blocker-defusing features from working correctly. Manual Installation Enterprise Deployment Deploying uBO Release History Releases Page Translations Help translate uBO via Crowdin. About Manifesto Privacy Policy GPLv3 License Free. Open-source. For users by users. No donations sought. If you ever want to contribute something, think about the people working hard to maintain the filter lists you are using, which are available to use by all for free.
Read the full README on GitHub

What Hacker News says

92 sources
pavon·Dec 14, 2022
uBO can also do things that uMatrix can't (on Firefox at least) - like CNAME uncloaking[1]. This is where a resource is hosted/maintained on third-party servers, but is addressed using a first-party subdomain. As a completely hypothetical example, instead of loading content from homedepot.disqus.com, you load it from disqus.homedepot.com. The relationship between Home Depot and Disqus and the privacy implications are similar in both cases, but uMatrix would consider the former to be third-party content and the later to be first-party. uBO however will treat both as third-party content (when CNAME uncloaking is enabled). Enabling this in uBO really opened my eyes to how fuzzy the distinction between first-party and third-party is. Sites can have all types of business arrangements with different privacy implications, ranging from relatively
Read the rest
harmless (hosting), to moderate (CDN), to invasive (ad tracking). uMatrix and other blockers have used the domain name as a proxy-variable to measure whether something should be trusted or not, but it is increasing becoming a poor metric. With CNAME uncloaking enabled, maintaining default deny, and allow only what is needed approach becomes quite a bit more work, as it ends up blocking a bunch of necessary content. But without you are allowing a fair bit of tracking you shouldn't. After a few months of trying to use uBO like uMatrix, I found that using the curated deny-lists was a more tractable approach than maintaining my own allow-list, and thus don't miss the uMatrix interface as much as I expected. [1] https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Dashboard:-Settings#u...
In uBlock Origin Core
danShumway·Dec 8, 2022
> What exactly can’t you block with iOS ad blocker that you can block with just 1Blocker’s “give json to safari” blocker https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/uBlock-Origin-works-b... This is specifically looking at (pre-manifest-V3) Chrome, so there are some other differences with Safari, but CNAME uncloaking is the most obvious example. See also some of the previous comments I've made about this in the past (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23622206). A few of these details might have changed (I vaguely think I remember Apple raising the rule limit), but I think the fundamentals are all still true. > Did you personally vet the open source code? Did you compile it from scratch and install it on your phone or are you trusting it’s the same code? I have read through parts of uBlock Origin's code, yes, but ultimately I'm trusting the b
Read the rest
roader Open Source community to say it doesn't have holes in it. And yes, I'm trusting Mozilla's vetting process for its "trusted extension" category. I think that's a reasonable thing for most people to do. Of course, I could compile the extension myself, but I think to a certain degree that would be security theater. ---- Again, just really surprising to see an argument that boils down to "this Open Source application might potentially spy on me, and that's a greater danger than the websites that I know are actively spying on me right now." If Safari adblocking is good enough for you and your threat models, great. You don't need to justify that by pretending that uBlock Origin is insecure. I will note, by the by, that Safari's limitations mean that (at least on desktop) the top-rated adblockers like AdGuard have shifted to running as external applications separate from the browser (https://adguard.com/en/welcome.html). This is not a dig at AdGuard, I think the AdGuard devs (as of last time I checked) are doing really great work. But if you're worried about sandboxing, running a desktop app is a lot more invasive than running a browser extension. I don't know if there are ways to do the same circumvention on iOS, so it's possible that AdGuard devs are staying in the browser sandbox there; I'd need to double-check. Of course, you can use apps like AdGuard as pure extensions in their more limited form (I don't recommend a specific iOS app, but unless something has changed since the last time I checked, AdGuard is a solid choice) -- but you will get a more limited adblocker as a result. The performance might be good enough for you, and that's fine. But it's still correct to say that it will be more limited. ---- I will also add to this just to preempt anyone arguing otherwise that I am not saying that browser extensions shouldn't have better sandboxing. They should, extension sandboxing is awful and it needs to improve. What I am saying is that the specific sandboxing model that Safari uses (and that Chrome is moving towards) for adblocking limits their effectiveness.
In Apple introduces end-to-end encryption for backups
matkoniecz·Nov 30, 2022
I prefer https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/issues solution where issue creation is simply blocked In this case users directed to garbage dump issue tracker but it also can be skipped. Main problem with stalebot is wasting time on proper issue which is then closed without ever being read by human. Maybe compare it to place offering users to fill poll or write feedback form? And then dumping them straight into paper shredder? Maybe simply do not encourage users to fill feedback forms if you will shred all of them anyway?
In Just Say No
matkoniecz·Nov 30, 2022
> So I think it's good advice that maintainers should use stalebot, because the alternative is a dead project. Why not just close issue tracker? Or autoclose everything immediately rather than remind people weeks/months later about their bug, just to discover that they got "pranked"? Or let issues pile up? Or have separate garbage dump issue tracker? Done by https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock
In Just Say No
mfrisbie·Nov 21, 2022
The best mv2 repository would of course be ublock origin: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock The best mv3 repository would be AdGuard's https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdGuardMV3 For a generalized ad blocker, importing and updating filter lists is probably the most challenging bit. https://kb.adguard.com/en/general/adguard-ad-filters AdGuard has an amazing blog, their content is impressively broad and deep https://adguard.com/en/blog/how-ad-blocking-is-done.html
In Ask HN: What weird technical scene are you fond/part of?

Showing the 15 most recent of 92 sources. Enable JavaScript to search and browse every indexed mention.

MAKE YOURSELF AT HOME

A few shortcuts

/
Search the collection
?
Open this guide
Esc
Close dialogs and navigation

Your saved repositories and interests stay in this browser.