853658 - Plugin block request: Google Earth Plugin < 7.0 on Mac OS X

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Toolkit :: Blocklist Policy Requests, defect)

Description

[Scoobidiver (away)]

Plugin name: Google Earth Plugin
Plugin versions to block: < 7.0.3.8542
Applications, versions, and platforms affected: Mac OS X
Block severity: (hard/soft)

How does this plugin appear in about:plugins?
    File: 
    Version: 
    Description: 

Homepage and other references and contact info: 

Reasons: immediate crashes on Google Maps (see bug 853387)

Comment 1

[Scoobidiver (away)]

Steven, how does this plugin appear in about:plugins?

Comment 2

[Steven Michaud [:smichaud] (Retired)]

Google Earth Plug-in

    File: Google Earth Web Plug-in.plugin
    Version: 7.0
    The Google Earth Plugin allows you to view 3D imagery and terrain in your web browser.

MIME Type             Description                  Suffixes
application/geplugin  Google Earth browser plugin

Comment 3

[Steven Michaud [:smichaud] (Retired)]

> Version: 7.0

I don't know if this will be a problem.

"7.0" is the plugin's CFBundleShortVersionString, while "7.0.3.8542" is its CFBundleVersion and CFBundleGetInfoString.

Comment 4

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

The block is now staged as a click-to-play block:
https://addons-dev.allizom.org/en-US/firefox/blocked/p301

Please test and make sure to check that the latest version isn't blocked.

Comment 5

[u279076]

It would appears as the this block is not working as expected. The latest version available from www.google.com/earth/explore/products/plugin.html is v7.0.3.8542 which is blocked for me after pinging staging.

The blocklist.xml file contains:
> <pluginItem blockID="p301">
>   <match name="filename" exp="Google Earth Web Plug-in\.plugin"/>
>   <versionRange minVersion="0" maxVersion="7.0.3.8541.9999" severity="1"/>
> </pluginItem>

When enabled, the plugin has the following string in about:config:
> Google Earth Plug-in
>    File: Google Earth Web Plug-in.plugin
>    Version: 7.0
>    The Google Earth Plugin allows you to view 3D imagery and terrain in your web browser.

Comment 6

[Steven Michaud [:smichaud] (Retired)]

My guess is that this is causing the problem:

>    Version: 7.0

Comment 7

[Steven Michaud [:smichaud] (Retired)]

If so, we may not be able to implement this blocklist request.

Comment 8

[Steven Michaud [:smichaud] (Retired)]

See comment #3 above.

Comment 9

[u279076]

Would we be able to CTP block GE7 as a compromise?

Comment 10

[Steven Michaud [:smichaud] (Retired)]

> Would we be able to CTP block GE7 as a compromise?

I'm not sure that's a good idea.

The only people who see bug 853387 are those who run FF in 32-bit mode (and therefore run the Google Earth plugin in-process).  I assume these are only a small minority of all Google Earth plugin users.

Comment 11

[Steven Michaud [:smichaud] (Retired)]

So, if I'm right, we may not have any good "technical" option.  Our best bet may be to simply educate users to upgrade Google Earth plugin to its latest version.

Thanks, Google, for giving Google Earth a fake version number!! :-(

Comment 12

[Steven Michaud [:smichaud] (Retired)]

Of course, it'd also help if this problem (and the advice to update Google Earth plugin) were well documented in our "user" forums.

Comment 13

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

(In reply to Steven Michaud from comment #11)
> Thanks, Google, for giving Google Earth a fake version number!! :-(

Do we have any good Google contacts who can help us get this fixed for future versions?

Comment 14

[Scoobidiver (away)]

I think we should at least block GE 6.x as we don't know which versions are affected.

(In reply to Steven Michaud from comment #11)
> Thanks, Google, for giving Google Earth a fake version number!! :-(
On Windows, it's OK:
    Fichier : npgeplugin.dll
    Version : 7.0.3.8542
    GEPlugin

> Our best bet may be to simply educate users to upgrade Google Earth plugin to its
> latest version.
Mozilla doesn't give the example as Plugincheck always says it's up-to-date (see bug 853506).

Comment 15

[Georg Fritzsche [:gfritzsche]]

(In reply to Jorge Villalobos [:jorgev] from comment #13)
> (In reply to Steven Michaud from comment #11)
> > Thanks, Google, for giving Google Earth a fake version number!! :-(
> 
> Do we have any good Google contacts who can help us get this fixed for
> future versions?

Benjamin?

Comment 16

[Benjamin Smedberg]

I had an email thread with some GEarth devs a year ago, but I've since deleted it, so I don't have current contacts.

Comment 17

[Benjamin Smedberg]

At this point, I don't think we should try to apply this particular block, both because of our inability to distinguish versions, and because we can probably work around the issue effectively in prefs. See bug 853387 comment 21.