Necko Team – Weekly Status Meeting Notes
Date: 2026-06-23
Edition: June
Facilitator: Greg
Next on Triage: Sunil Mayya
Quality Report Coordinators (June): Valentin Gosu / Sunil Mayya
Round Table
Bug Bash Day Planning
- Bug Bash / Hack Day scheduled for Friday, June 26.
- Team members were asked to propose focus areas and sign up.
- Suggested focus areas: - Security bug backlog reduction - Intermittent test cleanup - Disabled test areas - WebCompat investigations
- Greg encouraged everyone to identify work items before the end of the week.
SecPrivNecko Deep Dive (July 14)
- Necko is scheduled for a deep-dive presentation.
- Candidate topics discussed: - Compression Dictionaries - Happy Eyeballs - Cache improvements - Congestion control work
- Oskar will be unavailable due to thesis work.
- Team leaned toward postponing the Necko deep dive until August and asking another team to present in July.
Engineering Summit
- Registration deadline: July 13.
- Greg reminded all team members to register, even if attendance plans are uncertain.
Team Check-ins
Oskar
- Continued congestion-control experimentation.
- Shared updated slow-start metrics: - Significant improvement after Lars’ pacing patch. - SEARCH exit rates increased substantially. - More connections now survive long enough for algorithms to take effect.
- Keeping the current beta experiment running for the full cycle to collect additional data.
- Also balancing thesis work and upcoming deadline.
Max
- Continued Happy Eyeballs development.
- Proposed: - Reduced connection-attempt delay (50ms). - Exponential growth strategy. - Improved negative-DNS-cache handling.
- Plans to discuss preferred-address-family behavior with networking experts during IETF 126.
Lars
- Fixed libxul regression caused by NSS-RS integration by switching to dynamic linking.
- Continued Zero-RTT project planning.
- Preparing for IETF 126 participation.
- Working through review feedback on project planning documentation.
Sunil
- Progress on Speculation Rules implementation.
- Infrastructure now functional.
- Targeting first Nightly rollout in mid-July.
- Preparing: - Remaining review patches - Intent-to-ship for No-Vary-Search - Release-pref enablement for Firefox 153.
Valentin
- Focused heavily on security backlog.
- Investigated: - URL deserialization attack surface - URL crash reports - WebExtension-related security work
- Reported multiple performance improvements from recent patches.
- Working to clear urgent tasks before upcoming PTO.
Kershaw
- Fixed multiple Happy Eyeballs crash issues.
- Refactoring code to improve testability through gtests.
- Working on connection-race related failures.
- Continuing ECH and DoH investigations.
Randell
- Continuing WebTransport and neqo integration work.
- Investigated Windows Defender interaction with cache metadata.
- Achieved: - ~9% improvement on regular Windows systems. - Up to ~39% improvement on reference hardware.
- Also working on GeForce Now compatibility issues and potential L4S collaboration discussions.
Important Business
Priority Queue
| Bug ID | Severity | Summary | Priority | Owner | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000423 | S3 | FormData parser preamble compliance | P2 | — | — |
| 1974877 | S3 | Cookies/samesite WPT failures | P2 | — | — |
| 1965087 | S3 | Cookie creationDate/lastAccessed restore | P2 | valentin.gosu | — |
| 1963079 | N/A | Exclude spurious document loads telemetry | P2 | — | — |
| 2013783 | S3 | Website keeps reloading itself | P2 | valentin.gosu | — |
| 2015482 | N/A | BigQuery alerting investigation | P2 | — | — |
| 2019322 | S3 | Remove auth type support | P2 | — | — |
| 2035411 | S3 | SSLKEYLOGFILE warning | P2 | valentin.gosu | Reviews pending |
| 2037956 | S3 | dns.trr_success probe missing data | P2 | — | — |
| 2040187 | S3 | ECH never used with configured DoH server | P2 | kershaw | Investigating |
| 2044792 | S3 | HTTP/3 DoH timeout connection persistence | P2 | — | — |
| 1896460 | S3 | Improve Blink-compatible sniffing | P3 | valentin.gosu | Addressing tests |
Active Projects
FEISTY (Firefox Essential Internal Services Toughening)
- Riding Firefox 153.
- Alerting probes still needed.
- Monitoring dashboard remains active.
- Country-specific improvements still underway.
DoH Enablement (Fenix / Focus)
- Waiting for additional Happy Eyeballs fixes.
- New experiment expected to start next week.
Compression Dictionary Transport
- Firefox 153 rollout ongoing.
- Discussion around possible SecPrivNecko presentation topic.
- No major issues reported this week.
WebTransport (Interop 2026)
- Continued neqo and Gecko integration work.
- Firefox 154 remains the target release.
Local Network Access
- Desktop rollout increased to 25%.
- Android rollout continues in Firefox 153.
- No significant breakage reported.
QUIC / SEARCH / HyStart++
- Beta experiment continues.
- Significant improvement observed after pacing changes.
- Additional data collection planned before conclusions.
Happy Eyeballs
- Continued algorithm tuning.
- Focus on: - Delay reduction - Preferred-family behavior - DNS caching improvements
- Several crash fixes landed or in progress.
Speculation Rules API
- First Nightly milestone targeted for mid-July.
- Review patches being prepared.
Performance & Quality
Notable updates:
Cache Improvements
- Cache metadata restructuring produced: - ~9% improvement on standard Windows systems. - Up to ~39% improvement on reference hardware.
- Improvement achieved by reducing Windows Defender interaction overhead.
Congestion Control
- Positive results from pacing improvements.
- SEARCH metrics show substantially improved engagement and activation rates.
- Experiment will continue for the remainder of the cycle.
Happy Eyeballs
- Ongoing tuning focused on DNS efficiency and connection startup latency.
Security Bug Metrics
sec-high / sec-critical
- 4 open
- 0 closed last week
- 0 added last week
sec-moderate
- 28 open
- Net increase of 4 over prior week
Team reminder:
- Everyone is encouraged to pick up at least one security bug per week to reduce backlog pressure.
WebCompat
New issues requiring investigation:
- 2047429
- 2047524
- 2047099
- 2048215
- 2048487
- 2045020
Continuing investigations:
- 2042802
- 2040124
- 1975238
Guidance remains:
- Create component bugs rather than moving WebCompat bugs directly.
- Keep outstanding NIs under three.
Decisions & Alignment
- Proceed with Bug Bash planning and focus-area registration.
- Continue Happy Eyeballs tuning and DNS optimization work.
- Continue congestion-control experimentation through full cycle.
- Push No-Vary-Search toward release enablement.
- Postpone Necko SecPriv deep dive to August if needed.
- Maintain focus on reducing security backlog.
Action Items
Greg
- Coordinate alternate team for July 14 SecPrivNecko deep dive.
- Sync with Lars on Zero-RTT planning review.
- Continue Bug Bash coordination.
Sunil
- Post remaining Speculation Rules patches for review.
- Send intent-to-ship for No-Vary-Search.
- Enable release pref for Firefox 153.
Max
- Discuss preferred-family behavior with IETF experts.
- Continue Happy Eyeballs DNS optimizations.
Kershaw
- Reduce Happy Eyeballs connection delay.
- Continue Happy Eyeballs stability work.
Lars
- Address Zero-RTT planning feedback.
- Continue JIRA review process preparation.
Valentin
- Continue security bug burn-down.
- Clear urgent work before PTO.
Oskar
- Keep congestion-control experiment running.
- Continue data analysis and dashboard review.
Team
- Register Engineering Summit attendance by July 13.
- Sign up for Bug Bash focus areas.
- Continue helping with security and WebCompat backlogs.