1896449 - search.json.mozlz4 contains some hardcoded path data, making it not-portable

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Profile Backup, task, P3)

Description

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

Standard8 pointed out that the search.json.mozlz4 file contains some information that involves the absolute path to the profile directory. This means that if a user has some kind of third-party search engine set, this won't restore correctly. We'll need to modify the search.json.mozlz4 during recovery in order to make this work properly.

Comment 1

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

Attachment: Bug 1896449 - Recompute verification hashes for non-default engines during backup recovery. r?#backup-reviewers!,#search-reviewers!

Comment 2

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

Hey Mark,

I'm trying to figure out the best way to do this. The easiest is probably to re-use SearchUtils.getVerificationHash to generate the hash, but this presumes that I'm running in the same profile that search.json.mozlz4 belongs to... which means that I need to launch the profile in order use this method.

We have a "post-recovery" phase where the BackupService can run some steps inside of the recovered profile after launching, but presumably this would be after the search service initializes. Is it advisable to manipulate search.json.mozlz4 after the initialization? Feels kind of flimsy. Or is it better to use the SearchService mechanisms to revive custom engines after recovery? My worry there is that we open up a new way for search hijackers to

Comment 3

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

I spoke to standard8 and mcheang out-of-band, and we agreed that having getVerificationHash accept an optional profile directory as a second argument seems like it'd work.

Comment 4

[Mike Conley (:mconley) (:⚙️)]

ni'ing Standard8 for https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D215963#7449935

Comment 5

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/3c3abc9151ee
Recompute verification hashes for non-default engines during backup recovery. r=backup-reviewers,search-reviewers,Standard8,kpatenio

Comment 6

[Sandor Molnar[:smolnar]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/3c3abc9151ee