275287 - Domain Name Mismatch upon attempting to update from Mozilla Update Beta

Status: RESOLVED INVALID

(addons.mozilla.org Graveyard :: Public Pages, defect)

Description

[Chris Blore]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8a6) Gecko/20041218 Firefox/1.0+
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8a6) Gecko/20041218 Firefox/1.0+

Upon opening Firefox where Firefox checks for updates to installed installations
I get the following error: "Security Error: Domain Name Mismatch" relating to
the Update Beta site. I believe this could be caused because the certificate is
registered with the currently operational site.

I am marking this as a security issue because of the potential confusion that
could be caused upon viewing this warning window.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Open Firefox
2.
3.

Actual Results:  
A window opens saying that there is Domain Name Mismatch

Expected Results:  
Checked for updates without complaining of a Domain Name Mismatch

Comment 1

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

Why is Firefox using update-beta???

That site is not in production, and Firefox shouldn't be using it as a
destination for the Get More Extensions link.

Comment 2

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

Actually, that's even the automated update check when you launch it, according
to the reporter, which I don't believe is on update.mozilla.org anyway? 
(shouldn't that be using aus.mozilla.org?)

Comment 3

[Bill Gianopoulos [:WG9s]]

This issue is/was caused by the user having previously participated in the beta
test of the auto update feature and not restoring the preferences changed by the
test procedure back to defaults upon test completion.

Actually this is not the fault of the user, but the fault of the test procedure.
 The instructions on how to undo the preference changes should have been
included in the test instructions.

Anyway to fix this, go to about:config.
Then in the filter box, enter app.update.url
Right click on the displayed line and select Reset from the context menu

This should fix firefox to go to the correct site for software updates and
eliminate the Domain Name Mismatch error.

Comment 4

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

(In reply to comment #3)
> This issue is/was caused by the user having previously participated in the
> beta test of the auto update feature and not restoring the preferences
> changed by the test procedure back to defaults upon test completion.
> 
> Actually this is not the fault of the user, but the fault of the test
> procedure.  The instructions on how to undo the preference changes should
> have been included in the test instructions.

As well as a warning about the test certificate.  Where was the test procedure
posted?

Comment 5

[Bill Gianopoulos [:WG9s]]

(In reply to comment #4)
> As well as a warning about the test certificate.  Where was the test procedure
> posted?

Did some digging and found a test procdure at

 http://www.mozilla.org/projects/firefox/qa/softwareupdate.html

What is posted there has a different URL than I remember being there previously,
but if you notice, following the currently posted steps still leave you with the
value not restored to default upon completion. I seem to remember there being
something previous either at the same site or somewhere else doing a similar
test with the same instructions using the update-beta site.

Comment 6

[Bill Gianopoulos [:WG9s]]

I just realized that another way this could happen is if an extension is
installed that specifies https://update-beta.mozilla.org/ in the updateURL for
the extension. 

Comment 7

[Wolf [:wolf]]

No extension should be using update-beta as an UpdateURL, and to my knowledge
there's been no advertised procedure for testing application update on anything
other than update.mozilla.org (now aus.mozilla.org. If there was one for
update-beta.mozilla.org, I wasn't told of it.
If somebody's changed Firefox's defaults then they need to be changed *back* and
quickly. Otherwise, it sounds like an extension/theme author is using the wrong
URL or user has modified the Firefox defaults. (I don't personally have a
Firefox trunk nightly to test this on.)

Comment 8

[Chris Blore]

I have checked my extensions and there does not appear to be anything updating
from update-beta.mozilla.org. 

Comment 9

[Bill Gianopoulos [:WG9s]]

OK, I have REALLY figured this out this time.  This happens if you subscrribe to
the RSS feed on the update-beta site.  Every time you start Firefox it connects
update-beta to update the live bookmark and that is the cause of the certificate
error.  Just remove the live bookmarkmark for Mozilla Update and the issue will
go away.

Comment 10

[Wolf [:wolf]]

Ah, that makes perfect sense. :-) It should go away when the site launches and
the RSS feed is no longer at u-b.

Comment 11

[Chris Blore]

I did not sign up to the RSS feed so while it is possible that this could be the
problem in some instances, it is not what is causing it for me.

Comment 12

[Chris Blore]

Just to say, I am no longer experiencing this problem at all so unless anyone
has any objections, I would like to mark it FIXED.