963776 - Blocklist Advanced SystemCare Surfing Protection add-on

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Toolkit :: Blocklist Policy Requests, defect)

Description

[Kris Maglione [:kmag]]

Installed by 'Advanced SystemCare' installer from iobit.com. Bypasses about:newaddon. Also installs IOBit Apps Toolbar (bug 948695), but that one does not bypass the opt-in screen.

ID: [e-mail]

Comment 1

[Kris Maglione [:kmag]]

Hah. I spoke too soon. I rebooted my VM and the apps toolbar was enabled and 2 additional add-ons were silently installed. Also the search engine was set to Yahoo! and I'm not prevented from changing it to anything else.

Comment 2

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

Looks like a Spigot add-on, like the IObit Apps Toolbar. Just contacted the developer about it.

Comment 3

[Kris Maglione [:kmag]]

This is still an issue.

Comment 4

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

Blocked: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/blocked/i740

Comment 5

[Rob]

I have FF 33.0 ("Release"), Aurora, and Nightly. I also has ASC Installed.

The URL "about:newaddon" does not work on this version of FF. I can try on later versions, later on today.

The "more" Link, obtained from the "about:addons" Page clearly identifies the Extension as "Advanced SystemCare Surfing Protection" and explains that it will "Protect your computer away from malicious website attack.". Also there is an URL to their Site.

When you install ASC you can choose to utilize this Feature or decide not to.

I am not opposed to this being blocked due to it bypassing an Opt-in Screen in Firefox. I do not think it should be made to look like it is a "Security Risk" when the Authors presumably hope that the Extension would aid to prevent such problems. 

Sending them an Email to educate them about our expectations is good way to go but I think we need a "risk" or a proof of hostility, or lack of cooperation before a "Blacklisting". It may worry the enduser unneccesarily and there are many examples of other Plugins (like RealDownloader or DivX) from well know Companies that do the same thing without complaint (and those Plugins / Extensions are broken on later versions of FF).

I have used the ASC Extension for years and have not seen it crash or had problems with it. A couple of times in the last few years it denied me entry to a Website it thought was compromised or had some Exploit on the Page. That was likely helpful.

I will leave it enabled on my System and if I notice any problems I will report them in this Thread (now it is on my List of Threads commented in).


Thank you for going through the Extensions and Plugins to make sure they conform to Standards and work as expected.

Comment 6

[FredMcD]

FYI;

Discovered Hidden Add-on On Firefox. How To Check Yours
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/forums/support-forum-contributors/711335