Mozillas newest malware, called Firefox, strikes again. - by zombe
zombe on 4/5/2019 at 12:41
I have auto updates disabled - yet, the new version got automatically installed anyway. Likely a fuckup elsewhere - see editThe new version disables ALL add-ons. Even all the stuff that is needed for online banking and such. All the other essentials also gone. Ffs.
Obviously a major bug that somehow has been made to ignore users update settings.
Cannot find a workaround... tried this: (
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/31952727/how-can-i-disable-signature-checking-for-firefox-add-ons)
... but did not get it to work. Any ideas?
Have tried (even fairly recently) to migrate to other browsers - but have found no usable alternatives. The whole Firefox deciders seem to be exclusively from the profoundly retarded kind for close to a decade now with no signs of any changes ... and i am stuck with this constant shitstorm (this recent major bug that got forced on me against my consent is only a straw on top of the shit-mountain that is Firefox).
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Thanfully, all the UI modifications still work. LOL. Firefox some time ago outlawed fixing its UI by addons - so, all kinds of css workarounds popped up. Thous all still work :D.
edit:
The underlying cause seems to be a major fuckup with intermediate cert - and not allowing users to decide for themselves. A move that is time-and-time again shown to be damaging to security in the name of "improving" security.
Bug status: (
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1548973)
edit2:
Yeah, this has taken too much of my time. I resort to just waiting till it gets fixed. Kind of need the extensions to do the stuff i planned to do today - i guess i won't be doing anything productive today then. "Great".
WingedKagouti on 4/5/2019 at 16:07
Should be fixed by now.
zombe on 4/5/2019 at 18:28
It is not.
There is only a workaround that is auto applied if you have Studies enabled (likely because you have not disabled it from its default state for some bizare reason). They are using that Study system to bypass something ... a bit vague.
There is also (related or not - don't know) a partial fix where the intermediate cert was modified - which has had no effect for me at least (8h after the change. I have restarted). Maybe the new cert is usable/appliable only via the Study system backdoor.
Waiting for an actual fix.
Azaran on 4/5/2019 at 19:21
Version 52, which I still use, also had the addons disabled :nono:
zombe on 4/5/2019 at 20:36
Also, the official Studies workaround does not work - as the Studies cannot be enabled. The option cannot be set for at least some users [complaints on the workaround page comments] - myself included. The UI shows it is selected, but actually is not - evident from leaving the option screen and returning or visiting the studies page which will show "This is a list of studies that you have participated in. No new studies will run." which is meant to indicate that the option is not selected - the shortcut to auto enable it that is shown with the message does equally nothing.
So. There is not even a workaround for me - have to wait for an actual fix.
Luckily i have installed Chrome some time ago - so can use that for critical things Firefox literally cannot do at all right now (like anything that needs ID-card services for starters).
Stefan_Key on 4/5/2019 at 22:42
I only use the adblock plus add-on and they disabled it, impossible to reinstall with message "Check your connection, blah, blah". That's a retarded answer from mozilla robot : I am fully connected, I received an answer!
Even through the official site, I cannot re-install it, it's saying "it's corrupted"...
Maybe it's time to try another browser like Opera.
Stefan_Key on 5/5/2019 at 20:58
Looks like it has been fixed with version 66.0.4...
zombe on 5/5/2019 at 20:59
That link would have been great to know yesterday - as the Studies way was broken for me.
Now, there is finally a proper(ish) fix released via the usual update channels (66.0.4) - i finally have the add-on's back.
heywood on 6/5/2019 at 12:01
Yes, this was an annoying little episode. Even if you weren't auto-updating, you still got hosed.
I've been a Firefox user forever, but over the last 2-3 years they've made some frustrating decisions/mistakes. Firefox 57 was supposed to offer a big performance boost, but prior versions were already fast enough for me, and I didn't really notice a difference when I upgraded. Ever since then, it has gotten worse. In the last year, I've noticed more frequent page hangs, higher CPU utilization, slower rendering, janky scrolling.
It's also been ineffective at blocking the most annoying thing on the internet: auto-play videos that follow you as you scroll around the page. At first, you could only block auto-play globally through media.autoplay.default = 1. But on a lot of sites, setting it to 1 broke video that wasn't even configured to auto-play. And some sites, mainly large commercial media sites, seemed to get around that global variable and auto-play video anyway. Since version 66, you are supposed to be able to block it on a site by site basis through the permissions section of the little 'i' menu in the URL bar, but that has never worked for me. I long for the days when everybody used Flash for animated ads and video, and Flash block add-ons were simple and effective.
Have any of you considered switching to Chromium? It's about the only other browser I would consider at this point.