1365199 - Disable enablePrivilege in automated tests so that no new enablePrivilege calls sneaking in

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Testing :: General, enhancement, P3)

Description

[Masatoshi Kimura [:emk]]

We can't kill enablePrivilege from Talos yet, but it should not be used in any other test suites.

security.turn_off_all_security_so_that_viruses_can_take_over_this_computer was introduced to enable enablePrivilege in automation, but it is overloaded for various other purposes now. So we will have to add a new pref to control only enablePrivilege.

Comment 1

[Masatoshi Kimura [:emk]]

Attachment: Bug 1365199 - Add an enablePrivilege specific pref and use it in Talos.

Review commit: https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/141060/diff/#index_header
See other reviews: https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/141060/

Comment 2

[Joel Maher ( :jmaher ) (UTC -8)]

don't we have many other cases of enablePrivilege in tree outside of Talos:
https://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/search?q=enablePrivilege

Is there a reason why we cannot kill this from Talos?

Comment 3

[Masatoshi Kimura [:emk]]

(In reply to Joel Maher ( :jmaher) from comment #2)
> don't we have many other cases of enablePrivilege in tree outside of Talos:
> https://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/search?q=enablePrivilege

Those tests are dead (not running in automation). I'm not bothered to remove or restore them.

> Is there a reason why we cannot kill this from Talos?

Bug 715588 was WONTFIXed. It will take time to write a custom extension, sign the extension, make sure it does not introduce instability, seek some alternatives if it does, etc. But I would not like to leave enablePrivilege enabled in other test suites just because I can't remove enablePrivilege from Talos at the moment.

Comment 4

[Masatoshi Kimura [:emk]]

Try runs for the record:
https://treeherder.mozilla.org/#/jobs?repo=try&revision=c4be8608f83be911b61ed46e07e65d99cbc280a1
https://treeherder.mozilla.org/#/jobs?repo=try&revision=18d04ff658c5e804fb9bb7b4c541ca25e1ab89dc

Comment 5

[Joel Maher ( :jmaher ) (UTC -8)]

For talos there is talos-powers which is used by all tests.  The bug referenced was closed 3 years ago, a lot has changed since then.

I notice this patch deletes a test case test_bug504877.html, is that case not providing any value?  How did we determine it was ok to delete the test?

I need to understand more before giving this an r+.

In talos a lot of the instanced of enablePrivilege are related to the profiler, I suspect with talos-powers we could resolve anything we need, or maybe with the new profile built in we don't need this:
https://dxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/search?q=path%3Atesting%2Ftalos+enablePrivilege&redirect=true

Comment 6

[Joel Maher ( :jmaher ) (UTC -8)]

Comment on attachment 8869400 [details]
Bug 1365199 - Add an enablePrivilege specific pref and use it in Talos.

waiting on more data before doing formal review.

Comment 7

[Masatoshi Kimura [:emk]]

We'll soon remove enablePrivilege entirely.