63810 - [RFE] Mozilla should not use TCP socket with Java

Status: VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 63074

(Core Graveyard :: Java: OJI, enhancement)

Description

[Stephen Moehle]

On Linux, I see that Mozilla and Java (mozilla-bin, and java_vm) use a TCP
socket to communicate.  When Java is installed, Mozilla is always listening on
port 13000 for any foreign addresss.  This seems wrong to me.  For one, I do not
want Mozilla acting as a server.  By having Mozilla listening on a fixed port,
it would seem to invite all sorts of malicious hacking especially since many
users will not have a firewall installed and will not realize that Mozilla is
acting as a server.

In addition, for those of use with a firewall, this can lead to unexcpected
behavior.  I have an ipchains firewall on my machine that was a bit overzealous
and was denying all SYN packets from all addresses.  It took me weeks to figure
out why Mozilla would hang at startup whenever Java was installed.

It would seem much better to me for Mozilla and Java to use a UNIX domain
socket.  This would seem to be more secure and might even be faster.

Comment 1

[Keyser Sose]

Adding [RFE] and marking NEW.

Comment 2

[edburns]

Steve, can you please address this gentleman's concerns?

Comment 3

[Steven Katz]

This is a problem.  At the moment we can't just switch to UNIX domain sockets
because we are using the NSPR layer which doesn't support them.  This will need
to be looked at further.

Comment 4

[Stephen Moehle]

I am marking this a duplicate of bug 63074 which is now fixed.  Java and Mozilla
now use a UNIX domain socket to communicate.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 63074 ***

Comment 5

[James Green]

Verified dup.