You can now try out Microsoft Edge's Super Duper Secure Mode on Macs

Microsoft Edge Mac Hero
Microsoft Edge Mac Hero (Image credit: Windows Central)

What you need to know

  • Microsoft Edge Canary now supports Super Duper Secure Mode on macOS.
  • Super Duper Secure Mode is an experimental feature that disables the "Just-In-Time-Compilation" engine.
  • Microsoft plans to let people control which websites use Super Duper Secure Mode.

Microsoft's experimental Super Duper Secure Mode aims to improve browser security without adversely affecting performance. The mode has been available for Edge Beta, Dev, and Canary for around one month, though people have to enable it through edge://flags. Following an update, Super Duper Secure Mode now supports macOS.

Johnathan Norman, the Microsoft Edge vulnerability research lead, shared details about the update on Twitter this week. The new capabilities for Super Duper Secure Mode come with Edge Canary 94.0.992.0+.

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Norman notes that some sites, such as YouTube and Facebook, disable Super Duper Secure Mode. Microsoft plans to let people pick which sites use the feature in the future.

Super Duper Secure Mode works by disabling the "Just-in-Time-Compilation" (JIT) engine. Using the JIT engine can improve the performance of websites, but it comes at the cost of security.

"Performance and complexity often come at a cost, and often we bear this cost in the form of security bugs and subsequent patches," explains Microsoft. "Looking at CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) data after 2019 shows that roughly 45% of CVEs issued for V8 were related to the JIT engine."

Microsoft found that disabling the JIT engine can reduce vulnerabilities. Super Duper Secure Mode is still in its early testing phases. Microsoft explains that it will likely change to something "more professional" in the future.

Sean Endicott
News Writer and apps editor

Sean Endicott brings nearly a decade of experience covering Microsoft and Windows news to Windows Central. He joined our team in 2017 as an app reviewer and now heads up our day-to-day news coverage. If you have a news tip or an app to review, hit him up at sean.endicott@futurenet.com.