649617 - FF is "phoning home" to static.addons.mozilla.net:443

Status: VERIFIED INVALID

(Toolkit :: Add-ons Manager, defect)

Description

[Stefan]

User-Agent:       
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:6.0a1) Gecko/20110413 Firefox/6.0a1

Sometimes FF connects to static.addons.mozilla.net:443 after start and/or after entering Tools-Add-ons-Extensions though "automatic check for updates" is disabled.

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
1. disable Edit-Preferences-Advanced-Update-Add-ons,Search Engines 
2. start FF, observe network traffic
3.
Actual Results:  
A connection to static.addons.mozilla.net:443 is established.

Expected Results:  
No such connections.

- Which component initiates this connection? (could not find the address in code/prefs)
- How can this be disabled?

Comment 1

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

This could be the blocklist update http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/blocklist/
>How can this be disabled?
changing the blocklist URL

I don't think this bug is valid or not wontfix if this is really the blocklist update.

Comment 2

[Stefan]

>>How can this be disabled?
>changing the blocklist URL
Where? In about:config there are two entries which contain a URL:

- extensions.blocklist.detailsURL
- extensions.blocklist.url

In both instances which where running when the phoning happended these parameters did not contain values which denote a known protocol.

Comment 3

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

Not going to be the blocklist, probably the cached metadata for some of your add-ons includes content hosted on AMO. Try disabling extensions.getAddons.cache.enabled and then waiting a day or so for the cache to be flushed.

Comment 4

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

I guess interestingly you probably have to have add-on update checking for the cache to get flushed, hrm that might be a problem we should fix.

Comment 5

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2]]

Stefan, can you please tell us the exact URL Firefox connects to?

Comment 6

[Stefan]

Only the host is visible in HTTPS: static.addons.mozilla.net:443 
Can you recommend a MITM-proxy which decrypts/encrypts HTTPS on the fly?

Comment 7

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2]]

Install the Live HTTP Headers add-on to get this information:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3829/

Comment 8

[Stefan]

Will try. 

BTW: Where is that cache located? Is it in addons.sqlite?

Comment 9

[Stefan]

Live HTTP Headers states: "Works with	Firefox 0.8 - 3.6.*"

Are you sure that it'll work with 4.0/6.0?

Comment 10

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2]]

If you can reproduce it with Firefox 4 please do so. The add-on will work but the compatibility check has to be disabled. You can easily do it by installing  ACR before:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/add-on-compatibility-reporter/

Comment 11

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2]]

(In reply to comment #8)
> BTW: Where is that cache located? Is it in addons.sqlite?

Yes, it is.

Comment 12

[Stefan]

addons.sqlite does not seem to forget: 

sqlite> select name, iconURL from addon;

PrintPDF|https://static.addons.mozilla.net/en-US/firefox/images/addon_icon/5971/?modified=1281050062
Flashblock|https://static.addons.mozilla.net/en-US/firefox/images/addon_icon/433.png?modified=1295547961

Comment 13

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

(In reply to comment #12)
> addons.sqlite does not seem to forget: 
> 
> sqlite> select name, iconURL from addon;
> 
> PrintPDF|https://static.addons.mozilla.net/en-US/firefox/images/addon_icon/5971/?modified=1281050062
> Flashblock|https://static.addons.mozilla.net/en-US/firefox/images/addon_icon/433.png?modified=1295547961

I'm not sure what you're saying here. Yes addons.sqlite caches metadata about add-ons you have installed.

Comment 14

[Stefan]

> I'm not sure what you're saying here.
The records are kept after the add-on has been de-installed.

Comment 15

[Tony Mechelynck [:tonymec]]

(In reply to comment #10)
> If you can reproduce it with Firefox 4 please do so. The add-on will work but
> the compatibility check has to be disabled. You can easily do it by installing 
> ACR before:
> 
> https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/add-on-compatibility-reporter/

...except that the ACR itself is not compatible with Firefox 6.0a1. You might want to *temporarily* set extensions.checkCompatibility.6.0a (which doesn't exist by default: Create it as Boolean) to false in about:config to allow extensions to be installed and run in spite of the fact that they don't advertise support of Firefox 6.0a1. "Reset" that pref afterwards to re-enable auto-disabling of incompatible extensions.

Comment 16

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

(In reply to comment #14)
> > I'm not sure what you're saying here.
> The records are kept after the add-on has been de-installed.

yes, they will go away after the next update check

Comment 17

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2]]

Dave, this bug seems to be invalid for me. Can we close it?

Comment 18

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

Sounds like it is acting as expected yes

Comment 20

[Stefan]

What's the benefit of this GET request? And who is the beneficiary?

Comment 21

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

(In reply to Stefan from comment #20)
> What's the benefit of this GET request? And who is the beneficiary?

As mentioned in comment 3 this is the cached metadata for some of your add-ons. The URL in bug 679462 for example is the icon for flashblock.

Comment 22

[Stefan]

My add-ons are on my hard disk. There's no reason for asking on the net for "changed" metadata. Installed add-ons cannot change their metadata.

Comment 23

[Henrik Skupin [:whimboo][⌚️UTC+2]]

So why do we keep this bug open?

Comment 24

[Dave Townsend [:mossop]]

(In reply to Stefan from comment #22)
> My add-ons are on my hard disk. There's no reason for asking on the net for
> "changed" metadata. Installed add-ons cannot change their metadata.

Since Firefox 4 we download updated metadata from AMO. If you want to disable this you can set extensions.getAddons.cache.enabled to false in about:config. Everything seems to be working as expected here so closing this bug.