220730 - security.enable_java controls all plugins, not just Java

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 273785

(Core Graveyard :: Plug-ins, defect)

Description

[Ewen McNeill]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624

With all versions of mozilla up to and including Mozilla 1.2, other plugins (eg,
Acrobat Reader) could be used even if the security.enable_java preference was
set to false.

With Mozilla 1.4 if the security.enable_java preference is set to false, then
the other plugins (eg, Acrobat Reader) are always ignored and, eg, a save as
dialog box appears.

(I have not tested Mozilla versions between 1.2 and 1.4, so cannot tell you
where the regression was introduced.  Sorry.)

The GUI preferences screen still describe this option as "enable Java", and it
is counter-intuitive that it controls all plugins (in addition to being a
behaviour change from earlier versions of Mozilla).

I could not find another bug mentioning security.enable_java, nor a mention of
it in the plugin documentation.

If the behaviour change is intended then (a) the GUI preferences page should be
changed (eg "Enable Plugins"), and (b) it should be documented in, eg, the
plugins documentation.  Otherwise the old behaviour would make more sense.

NOTE: I have checked for, and removed, the Helper Application entry for PDF; the
problem is repeatable without any Helper Application entry for PDF.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Install Acrobat Reader plugin following plugin installation documentation
2. Set security.enable_java to false (eg, by editing prefs.js or through the GUI)
3. Try to access PDF document (file:///... or http:///... both have same behaviour)
4. Observe "save as" dialog (or similar).
5. Set security.enable_java to true, and try accessing PDF document again.
6. Observe PDF disabled embedded in browser.

Actual Results:  
With security.enable_java set to false plugins are ignored, and "save as" dialog
is displayed for the PDF document.

Expected Results:  
All versions up to and including Mozilla 1.2 would use the Acrobat Reader plugin
(and other plugins) even when security.enable_java is set to false.  This is the
behaviour I expected both from past history and from the preference name, and
description of the preference in the GUI.

Comment 1

[Ewen McNeill]

Now I think about it, you probably have to restart the browser after changing
the security.enable_java preference in order to reproduce it. Ie step 5 should be:

5a. Change security.enable_java to true
5b. Stop and restart the browser.
5c. Try to access the PDF document

(I did this during my testing, and from other comments I've found I suspect it's
the plug scanning which is affected rather than the plugin use having found
them; cf Java.)

Comment 2

[noririty]

confirming.
Also occurred on WinXP (trunk and 1.5branch).

Comment 3

[Taral]

Also happens on win32 Firebird/0.7.

If you load "about:plugins", it loads the plugins, but until then, it looks like
it's not loading them at all...

Comment 4

[Marc-Jano Knopp]

1) This bug still exists in Mozilla 1.7:
   Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040616
   I tried with a fresh install and a fresh profile, it is 100%
   reproducible.

2) If the browser encounters an embedded file ("<EMBED SRC=...>"), the
   type of which is handled by an installed plug-in, then the plugin
   loads correctly (independent of the "Enable Java" setting) and
   thereafter, *all* plug-ins work correctly again.

So there are two possible workarounds:

* Load "about:plugins" once, OR

* Load a page with an embedded file, the type of which is handled by
  an installed plug-in.

Both workarounds will make all plug-ins work for the current session.

Not really satisfying, but at least a little help.

Comment 5

[Frank Wein [:mcsmurf]]

*** Bug 222650 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 6

[Frank Wein [:mcsmurf]]

*** Bug 260031 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 7

[Volkmar W. Pogatzki]

(In reply to comment #4)
> 1) This bug still exists in Mozilla 1.7:
>    Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040616
>    I tried with a fresh install and a fresh profile, it is 100%
>    reproducible.

WFM using
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20040930 Firefox/0.10

Maybe it depends on where the plugins are installed?  I've got them symlinked 
in "/opt/firefox/plugins/".
With Java disabled, both pdf and swf works well. No need to call
"about:plugins". (I've not tested having the plugins in a profile.)

Comment 8

[Forest]

I can (mostly) reproduce this with:
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20040913 Firefox/0.10

I say mostly because it seems the plugins aren't actually failing to load, but
they fail to show up in Tools -> Options -> Downloads -> Plug-Ins.  The
workarounds mentioned in comment 4 populate the plugins list.

Comment 9

[Frank Wein [:mcsmurf]]

Ewen: Could you (or anyone affected by this bug) test if this bug still occours
with a recent build from
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-trunk/ or
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/mozilla/nightly/latest/? I suspect this
bug here is a dupe of Bug 273785 (now fixed), but i would rather like that
people test this first.

Comment 10

[Ewen McNeill]

Testing with nightly build 2005022705 the problem does indeed appear to be
resolved; even with security.enable_java = false in prefs.js, and a freshly
restarted mozilla instance, PDFs are properly processed by the Acrobat PDF plugin.

Reading through bug 273785 it does appear that they report at least some of the
same behaviour, and that the fix for that bug fixes both of them.  Thanks for
checking.  Feel free to mark the bug FIXED.

Ewen

Comment 11

[20golfer.seeded]

Bug still present in Firefox 1.0.1
(Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050223
Firefox/1.0.1)

Tested with fresh profile, Java 1.5.0_02, QuickTime 6.5.1, Adobe Reader 7.0.1,
Adobe SVG Viewer 6.0, Shockwave Flash 7.0 r19, Shockwave 10.1, RealPlayer
6.0.12.1059.

When [Options > Web Features > Enable Java] is disabled, following link to .swf
file (with proper MIME type "application/x-shockwave-flash") results in a file
being downloaded, NOT displayed within the browser.

Comment 12

[Frank Wein [:mcsmurf]]

ok duping
Comment 11 is not related since it's talking about FF 1.0.1

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 273785 ***