844979 - Blocklist DataMgr add-on (third try)

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Toolkit :: Blocklist Policy Requests, defect)

Description

[Kris Maglione [:kmag]]

Another Softonic install that bypasses about:newaddon

As far as I can tell, this is just an add-on that changes your search settings and tries to prevent you from changing them again. It's hard to say for sure as I have at least two other add-ons or apps from Softonic that do the same thing installed on this VM right now, and the extension is mostly binary, but its proxy file points to:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Settings Alerter\Datamngr\FirefoxExtension

ID: {1FD91A9C-410C-4090-BBCC-55D3450EF433}

See also bug 812456

Comment 2

[Kris Maglione [:kmag]]

I don't think this is a duplicate. These are two block requests for completely different reasons. Bug 812456 was mostly about a crash. This is about flagrant and serious add-on guideline violations.

Comment 3

[Jorge Villalobos [:jorgev] (he/him)]

The reasons for not blocking remain the same. The block would have an unknown impact on a very large number of systems.

Comment 4

[Kris Maglione [:kmag]]

I don't think that's a reasonable reason not to block this. Unless there's another DataMgr add-on with the same ID, I don't think there can be an unknown impact which would be unwanted. The add-on is silently installed by freeware installers to change settings for monitization purposes, and make it difficult for users to change them back. This is understandably causing complaints from users:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/831153
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/899153
https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Asupport.mozilla.org%20%7B1FD91A9C-410C-4090-BBCC-55D3450EF433%7D

We've blocked other add-ons with similar user counts for lesser offenses in the past. Unless we have good reason to think that users are intentionally installing this and actually want it installed, I don't see good reason not to block it.

Comment 5

[Jorge Villalobos [:jorgev] (he/him)]

After discussions with Bandoo, we have determined that this extension is unrelated to their products, and that the confusion stems from both of them using the same (?) binary component and this extension having the same name as the component.

We're going forward with this block. It doesn't look like this would cause problems for other add-ons or installed software.

Comment 6

[Jorge Villalobos [:jorgev] (he/him)]

Blocked: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/blocked/i338

Comment 7

[Vernon Horn]

I concur with the original request. This is just malware that I did not ask for, and which messes up your search settings.