Closed Bug 1637227 Opened 4 years ago Closed 4 years ago

Profile Downgrade Protection

Categories

(Toolkit :: Startup and Profile System, defect)

Product:
Toolkit
Component:
Startup and Profile System
Version:
76 Branch
Type:
defect

Tracking

()

Status:
RESOLVED WONTFIX

People

(Reporter: tomek, Unassigned)

References

Details

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; FreeBSD amd64; rv:76.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/76.0

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Update Firefox from 75 to 76.
  2. See that videoconferencing does not work in 76.
  3. See that videoconferencing works in 75.
  4. Re-install Firefox 75.
  5. Observe that user pfofile is not accesible anymore because it was auto updated to 76 and some smart ass invented this terrible Profile Downgrade Protection.

Actual results:

I could not neither use my browser for videoconferencing nor use my profile with older Firefox version. Even move to ESR was not possible.

See that this is on purpose:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/install-older-version-of-firefox

UNACCEPTABLE!!

Expected results:

  1. I have problem with new version of Firefox.
  2. I install older version and wait for the fix.
  3. I can still operate my web browser with my user profile and its data.
  4. Noone prevents me from using my own data with Open-Source utilities like it was some evil corporation software.

How can you implement Profile Downgrade Protection, a kind of dirtiest trick of the dirtiest corporations, that effectively prevent me from using my own data in Open-Source software?!

I had problem with videoconferencing bug in 76.0. The browser already updated by profile without my consent. Then when I wanted to go back to 75 where videoconferencing worked I was unable to access my own profile!!!!

This is unacceptable sick idea to prevent users from downgrading the browser version. Have you even considered an option that there may be a bug and users will be forced to roll back the update and they will loose all their browser data?!

Whole world is not located on a web. We are accessing dozens of different platforms interconnected. We do not remember all passwords at glance. We also do not want to store out credentials on any kind of cloud service.

Implementing this Profile Downgrade Protection is a really bad move because:

  1. It cuts off user from using their own data.
  2. No way to roll back in case of a bug.
  3. Enforcing settings stored in a cloud which is unacceptable.

If this is a some kind of protection it cannot be one-way operation and any sort of converter / reverter / backup would be highly desired.

Hello! I wasn't able to reproduce the issue following the STR provided in the comment using Fx 76.0.1 on Windows 10, Ubuntu 18.04 LST and MacOS 10.15 .
I have a few questions regarding this issue:

  1. What OS did you encounter this issue?
  2. Do you have any addons installed and have you tried reproducing the issue without any addons enabled?
  3. Could you please mention the website where you have encountered the issue?
    There is a way to open a new profile with a older version of firefox with MOZ_ALLOW_DOWNGRADE preference or in console you can firefox --allow-downgrade .

I will also add a component for this issue so one of our developers could look more into it. If it's not the right component please feel free to change it to an appropriate one

Component: Untriaged → WebRTC
Flags: needinfo?(tomek)
Product: Firefox → Core

Hello and thank you for your response :-)

I am using Firefox on FreeBSD since versions as early as the existence of the universe :-)

The problem showed up recently after upgrade to 76 where some build flags broke WebRTC. Just to check if older version works I have uninstalled 76 and installed 75. Then I got this warning that I am now unable to use my profile because it was already upgraded to 76 and there is this Downgrade Protection. No mention about --allow-downgrade, no button to backup my profile, no button to force downgrade from GUI, most of all there was no mention that my profile will be irreversibly upgraded on the first 76 run.

I would kindly ask and suggest for the following features around Profile Management if the profile is not backward compatible:

  1. Inform users that the profile data will be upgraded and this will break backward compatibility.
  2. Create a backup of the profile components that are irreversibly upgraded. Keep backups near profile data so they are easy to find. Name them so it is trivial to guess what version they are coming from (i.e. Firefox-75-ProfileBackup-ABC.txz).
  3. Allow Backup and Downgrade directly from GUI warning window.

Thank You :-)
Tomek

Flags: needinfo?(tomek)

Hello and thank you for the response, unfortunately we do not have the environment to test this issue.
As mentioned above one of our developers will look into this issue.

This appears to be a complaint about the irreversible profile upgrade, not the web conferencing problem mentioned as an antecedent—there's no actionable info to diagnose the latter.

I personally find this a reasonable gripe, so I'm kicking this over to Toolkit::Startup and Profile System. Please file a separate bug with details of the web conferencing problem if you want us to look at that. Thanks!

Component: WebRTC → Startup and Profile System
Product: Core → Toolkit

We don't intend to scale back profile downgrade protection any more than we have at this time.

Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 4 years ago
Resolution: --- → WONTFIX

Web conferencing is solved now by avoiding nss related compile option.

This particular bug report was indeed a complain about invisible irreversible profile upgrade and no way to use it in older version in case of trouble like web conferencing which happens and will happen from time to time.

I hoped this "complain" would result in constructive solution to profile backup/upgrade/downgrade.

But it is now marked as WONT FIX.

So the Open-Source Firefox took a dirty path of corporate approach and does not allow to use your own data in older versions.

Sad :-(

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