381525 - Ability to turn off loading of global extensions

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Toolkit :: Add-ons Manager, enhancement)

Description

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

"admin" from Torrify writes that somewhere along the way we've added the ability to load globally installed extensions (not in the install directory nor the profile directory) using the windows registry (not sure if we have similar features on other platforms). This is described at

http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Adding_Extensions_using_the_Windows_Registry

For users who choose to use a "portable" type Firefox for security (Portable Firefox or Torrify, for example) would be dismayed to know that something installed on the Internet Cafe's PC could insinuate itself into their Firefox. It's also probable that some non-browser apps built on XULRunner would appreciate the ability to restrict where external chrome can be loaded without hhaving to hack their own copy of the Extension Manager.

(a similar issue applies to plugins, but since that's handled in different code I'll file a separate bug)

Comment 1

[Daniel Veditz [:dveditz]]

Of course the PC you visit could be infested with keyloggers and screen scrapers. Fixing this is no guarantee of safety, but many cafes do anti-malware scans that have a decent chance of catching keyloggers and the like based on behavior but are unlikely to be looking for malware that hooks Firefox, at least not until it become pervasive.

Comment 2

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

I don't think this blocks, but if we can get a patch that does this we'd take it.

Comment 3

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

This is something that would also be useful for the testing environments. I was burned the other week when talos failed to run due to my globally installed add-ons.

Comment 4

[Andrew Hagen]

This has now received attention from major media. Fortunately, the blame is going to Microsoft for now. 

We need the ability to disable global extensions from Firefox. We need this because illegitimate extensions, like Microsoft's .NET, take advantage of our politeness/weakness in not checking what is installed, or in giving the user any options to make configuration changes regarding global extensions from within Firefox. 

Yes, since we do not run at Ring 0, the enhancement called for here would not be 100% secure. Nothing is 100% secure. Security is layers. This would be an important layer to have, contra the frequently-heard argument to the effect that "keyloggers/malware could be infesting your machine, hence we need not implement any security measures whatsoever." 

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2009/05/microsoft_update_quietly_insta.html

"Microsoft Update Quietly Installs Firefox Extension

"A routine security update for a Microsoft Windows component installed on tens of millions of computers has quietly installed an extra add-on for an untold number of users surfing the Web with Mozilla's Firefox Web browser. . . . ."

The Digg thread that links to the above article is full of incorrect information, by the way. If we take control of our own application, the confusion would significantly dissipate.

http://digg.com/security/Microsoft_Update_Secretly_Installs_Firefox_Extension

Comment 5

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

(In reply to comment #4)
> We need the ability to disable global extensions from Firefox. We need this
> because illegitimate extensions, like Microsoft's .NET, take advantage of our
> politeness/weakness in not checking what is installed, or in giving the user
> any options to make configuration changes regarding global extensions from
> within Firefox. 

Users can already disable global extensions within Firefox. This bug would be about providing something that system administrators/customisers could use to completely ignore all global extensions. It wouldn't be something that would be generally user exposed in my opinion.

Comment 6

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

Fixed by bug 555486

Comment 7

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+1]]

Dave, does it mean someone has to create an extension to disable the installation of globally installed add-ons? We suffer from the same problem in our Mozmill tests and would need a solution.

Comment 8

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

(In reply to comment #7)
> Dave, does it mean someone has to create an extension to disable the
> installation of globally installed add-ons? We suffer from the same problem in
> our Mozmill tests and would need a solution.

Just setting extensions.enabledScopes is enough

Comment 9

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+1]]

Thanks Dave. Works perfect on Linux with Ubufox. Filed bug 579745 for the Mozmill behavior.

Marking as verified fixed with Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; en-US; rv:2.0b2pre) Gecko/20100718 Minefield/4.0b2pre