SECURITY ALERT !! FIREFOX HACKING !! SECURITY DISABLED !! temp use other browsers!

[motormafia]

Suddenly 30 mins ago happened to all firefox browsers in many systems that ADD-ON SIGNATURES are all NOT RECOGNIZED! And REMOVED losing all security against BIT COIN MINERS SCRIPTS ETC. Ad-blockers etc all disabled. I lost ALL THE SECURITY PLUG-INs in EVERY FIREFOX installations (4 computers)

You cannot download nor reinstall them! All prevented and BLOCKED!

Now I stopped using firefox and use only Chrome in a virtual machine.

It could be hackers, or it could be firefox is extorting $$$$ from plug-in / add-on developers. No idea yet. But meanwhile when you serve without the securities the sites can exploit your computers - to mine bit coins for them using a trap to lure you there to load their scripts is very common today.

 

[Tony Tan]

https://hk.news.yahoo.com/毒app盜手機電話號碼-按下載已中招-即刪除已太遲-214500320.html


毒App盜手機電話號碼 按下載已中招 即刪除已太遲

東方日報 OrientalDaily
5.6k 人追蹤
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東方日報
2019年5月4日 上午5:45
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有網絡保安專家呼籲市民自行評估下載蘋果動新聞的風險。（羅錦鴻攝）
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【本報訊】惡意程式竊取電話號碼牽連甚廣。有資訊科技商會代表指，現時不論是網上銀行或支付工具，均以用戶的電話碼號作為認證，一旦被不法之徒取得，小則被作為促銷之用，大則會被網盜用帳戶，甚至招致金錢損失，故呼籲市民切勿輕易授權程式索取電話號碼，並應在電話內加裝防毒軟件，讓個人資料獲得較多保障。

網上支付工具要小心

香港資訊科技商會榮譽會長方保僑指，Google Play本身已設有防止惡意程式攻擊的保護，減低用戶中招的機會，然而「道高一尺、魔高一丈」，不少惡意軟件仍能「逃過法眼」植入應用程式，令市民使用多時依舊懵然不知。方又指，現時不少服務例如網上銀行或支付工具，均以電話碼號作為認證，如被有關惡意程式竊取後，可能會令自己或友人招致嚴重損失。「黑客唔止偷你錢，仲可能用你個名去呃身邊嘅朋友，咁先大鑊！」

專家籲加裝防毒軟件

針對電話號碼的重要性，方保僑認為，除即時通訊流動應用程式外，盡量不要授權其他應用程式索取自身的電話號碼及電話簿，改以電郵或社交網站作登記，他又提醒市民應在電話內加裝防毒軟件，讓防毒軟件在下載程式前進行「掃毒」，「你一下載已經係中咗招，之後你delete（刪除）都係冇用！」不過，他指，大部分港人至今仍未習慣付款購買防毒軟件，認為隨着網上交易漸見頻繁，港人理應改變習慣。

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方保僑
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Poison App Stealing Mobile Phone Number Press Download has been recruited It is too late to delete

Oriental Daily OrientalDaily
5.6k person tracking
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Oriental Daily
May 4, 2019, 5:45 am
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Some network security experts have called on the public to assess the risk of downloading Apple News. (photo by Luo Jinhong)
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[Reporter] Malicious programs stealing phone numbers are widely involved. A representative of the Information Technology Industry Association said that whether it is an online banking or payment instrument, the user's telephone code number is used as a certification. Once it is obtained by a criminal, it is used as a promotion, and the Internet is stolen. Even in the event of financial losses, the public is urged not to authorize the program to obtain a telephone number, and to install anti-virus software on the telephone to provide more protection for personal data.

Be careful with online payment tools

Fang Baoqiao, honorary president of the Hong Kong Information Technology Industry Association, said that Google Play itself has been protected against malware attacks, reducing the chances of users recruiting. However, "the road is one foot high and the height is one foot high", many malware can still The "Escape the Eyes" application is embedded in the application, so that the public is still ignorant of the use. The party also pointed out that many services, such as online banking or payment tools, are authenticated by telephone code numbers. If they are stolen by malicious programs, they may cause serious losses to themselves or their friends. "The hacker stops stealing your money. You may use your name to slap your friends around you.

Experts call for anti-virus software

In view of the importance of telephone numbers, Fang Baoqiao believes that apart from the instant messaging mobile application, try not to authorize other applications to obtain their own phone numbers and phone books, and to register them by email or social networking sites. He reminded the public that they should Add anti-virus software to the phone, let the anti-virus software perform "virus removal" before downloading the program. "You have already downloaded the game, and then you delete it." However, he pointed out that most of the port People still have not been accustomed to paying for anti-virus software, and believe that as online transactions become more frequent, Hong Kong people should change their habits.




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Fang Baoqiao
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[laksaboy]

I only launch Firefox once in a while if I need to use Download Helper.

My main browser now is Yandex: based on Google Chromium, minus the 'innovations' by Google.

Try it, you'll appreciate the Russians' work on the software.

https://browser.yandex.com

 

[motormafia]

I only launch Firefox once in a while if I need to use Download Helper.

My main browser now is Yandex: based on Google Chromium, minus the 'innovations' by Google.

Try it, you'll appreciate the Russians' work on the software.

https://browser.yandex.com

Chrome is getting popular:

https://www.stetic.com/market-share/browser/

Browser Statistics May 2019
Here you see the market shares of the most used browsers for the current month.
Rank Browser
1 Google Chrome 46.4%
2 Safari 32.67%
3 Firefox 12.4%
4 Internet Explorer 5.44%
5 Mozilla 3.09%


Browser Statistics with version May 2019
Here you see the market shares of the most used browser versions for the current month.
Rank Browser
1 Google Chrome 73.0 19.64%
2 Safari Mobile 12 15.39%
3 Google Chrome 74.0 13.75%
4 Safari Mobile 9.88%
5 Firefox 66.0 9.58%
6 Google Chrome 67.0 4.97%
7 Internet Explorer 11 3.23%
8 Mozilla 5.0 2.96%
9 Safari 12.1 1.98%
10 Internet Explorer 9.0 1.86%
11 Edge 17 1.7%
12 Safari Mobile 11 1.27%
13 Google Chrome 72.0 0.96%
14 Edge 18 0.85%
15 Google Chrome 71.0 0.78%
16 Opera 58.0 0.66%
17 Safari Mobile 10 0.63%
18 Firefox 60.0 0.56%
19 Google Chrome 70.0 0.55%
20 Firefox 52.0 0.5%
21 Google Chrome 63.0 0.42%
22 Safari 12.0.3 0.39%
23 Google Chrome 41.0 0.37%
24 Safari Mobile 9.0 0.31%
25 Google Chrome 69.0 0.3%


Browser statistics history since January 2016
Here you can see the evolution of the market shares for the 5 most successful browsers Firefox, Safari, Google chrome, Internet Explorer and Opera since January 2016.
May 2016
September 2016
January 2017
May 2017
September 2017
January 2018
May 2018
September 2018
January 2019
0
10
20
30
40
50
Software
Analytics
Call-To-Actions
Umfragen
Pricing
White-label
Stetic
Customers
Imprint
Privacy
Terms
Apps & Extras

 

[bushtucker]

chill man, it's just an expired certificate.

https://www.engadget.com/2019/05/03/firefox-extension-add-on-cert/

 

[laksaboy]

Chrome is getting popular:

https://www.stetic.com/market-share/browser/

A lot of browsers are based on Chromium, including the official Google Chrome.

They're all of the same family, just different brands and slight cosmetic changes.

Also, Chrome's dominance is probably due to it being preinstalled as the default browser on Android phones.

 

[motormafia]

chill man, it's just an expired certificate.

https://www.engadget.com/2019/05/03/firefox-extension-add-on-cert/

Thanks!

Wow! WAF! suddenly many extensions fucked but not all. Those for downloading e.g. youtube/ mp3 are OK..

Sibeh Jee Seow! There are many exploitation online using java scripts etc, and trigger by click-baits. Lots of craps online. Must have security defense thee days, cannot be a naive GCB!

 

[motormafia]

A lot of browsers are based on Chromium, including the official Google Chrome.

They're all of the same family, just different brands and slight cosmetic changes.

Also, Chrome's dominance is probably due to it being preinstalled as the default browser on Android phones.

Mozilla's engine powers many browsers:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gecko_(software)

Gecko (software)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigationJump to search

It has been suggested that Quantum (Mozilla) be merged into this article. (Discuss) Proposed since June 2018.
Gecko

Developer(s) Mozilla Foundation, Mozilla Corporation, Adobe Systems and individual contributors
Repository
hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/

Written in C++, JavaScript and Rust
Type Browser engine
License MPL 2.0[1][2]
Website developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Gecko
Gecko is a browser engine developed by Mozilla. It is used in the Firefox browser, the Thunderbird email client, and many other projects.

Gecko is designed to support open Internet standards, and is used by different applications to display web pages and, in some cases, an application's user interface itself (by rendering XUL). Gecko offers a rich programming API that makes it suitable for a wide variety of roles in Internet-enabled applications, such as web browsers, content presentation, and client/server.[3]

Gecko is written in C++ and JavaScript,[4] and, since 2016, additionally in Rust.[5][6] It is free and open-source software subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public License version 2.[7] Mozilla officially supports its use on Android,[4] Linux, macOS, and Windows.[8]


Contents
1 History
2 Standards support
3 Usage
4 Bloat
5 Future
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
History[edit]
Development of the layout engine now known as Gecko began at Netscape in 1997, following the company's purchase of DigitalStyle. The existing Netscape rendering engine, originally written for Netscape Navigator 1.0 and upgraded through the years, was slow, did not comply well with W3C standards, had limited support for dynamic HTML and lacked features such as incremental reflow (when the layout engine rearranges elements on the screen as new data is downloaded and added to the page). The new layout engine was developed in parallel with the old, with the intention being to integrate it into Netscape Communicator when it was mature and stable. At least one more major revision of Netscape was expected to be released with the old layout engine before the switch.

After the launch of the Mozilla project in early 1998, the new layout engine code was released under an open-source license. Originally unveiled as Raptor, the name had to be changed to NGLayout (next generation layout) due to trademark problems. Netscape later rebranded NGLayout as Gecko. While Mozilla Organization (the forerunner of the Mozilla Foundation) initially continued to use the NGLayout name (Gecko was a Netscape trademark),[9] eventually the Gecko branding won out.

In October 1998, Netscape announced that its next browser would use Gecko (which was still called NGLayout at the time) rather than the old layout engine, requiring large parts of the application to be rewritten. While this decision was popular with web standards advocates, it was largely unpopular with Netscape developers, who were unhappy with the six months given for the rewrite.[10] It also meant that most of the work done for Netscape Communicator 5.0 (including development on the Mariner improvements to the old layout engine) had to be abandoned. Netscape 6, the first Netscape release to incorporate Gecko, was released in November 2000 (the name Netscape 5 was never used).

As Gecko development continued, other applications and embedders began to make use of it. America Online, by this time Netscape's parent company, eventually adopted it for use in CompuServe 7.0 and AOL for Mac OS X (these products had previously embedded Internet Explorer). However, with the exception of a few betas, Gecko was never used in the main Microsoft Windows AOL client.

On July 15, 2003, AOL laid off the remaining Gecko developers and the Mozilla Foundation (formed on the same day) became the main steward of Gecko development. Today, Gecko is developed by employees of the Mozilla Corporation, employees of companies that contribute to the Mozilla project, and volunteers.

Standards support[edit]

Contents
History of Firefox
v1 • v1.5
v2
v3 • v3.5 • v3.6
v4
v5 and later
Features of Firefox
Gecko
Add-ons
Extensions
Firefox market adoption
Origins and lineage
Netscape Navigator
Mozilla Foundation
Mozilla Suite
Category
vte
From the outset, Gecko was designed to support open Internet standards. Some of the standards Gecko supports include:

CSS Level 2.1 (partial support for CSS 3)[11]
DOM Level 1 and 2 (partial support for DOM 3)
HTML4 (partial support for HTML5—see Comparison of layout engines (HTML5))
JavaScript 1.8.5 (full ECMAScript 5.1 support),[12] implemented in SpiderMonkey
MathML
RDF
XForms (via an official extension)
XHTML 1.0
XML 1.0
XSLT and XPath, implemented in TransforMiiX
Gecko also partially supports SVG 1.1.[13] The SVG font, color profile, animation, view, and cursor modules are yet to be implemented and the filter and text modules are only partially implemented. The extensibility module is also implemented but is currently disabled.

In order to support web pages designed for legacy versions of Netscape and Internet Explorer, Gecko supports DOCTYPE switching. Documents with a modern DOCTYPE are rendered in standards compliance mode, which follows the W3C standards strictly. Documents that have no DOCTYPE or an older DOCTYPE are rendered in quirks mode, which emulates some of the non-standard oddities of Netscape Communicator 4.x; however, some of the 4.x features (such as layers) are not supported.

Gecko also has limited support for some non-standard Internet Explorer features, such as the marquee element and the document.all property (though pages explicitly testing for document.all will be told it is not supported).[14]

Usage[edit]
Gecko is primarily used in web browsers, the earliest being Netscape 6 and Mozilla Suite (later renamed SeaMonkey). It is also used in other Mozilla web browser derivatives such as Firefox and Firefox for mobile and the implementation of the Internet Explorer-clone that is part of Wine.[15] Mozilla also uses it in their Thunderbird email-client.

Other web browsers using Gecko include Airfox, Waterfox, K-Meleon, Lunascape, Portable Firefox, Conkeror, Classilla, TenFourFox, HP Secure Web Browser, Oxygen and Sylera (for mobile).

Other products using Gecko include Nightingale, Instantbird and Google's picture-organization software Picasa (for Linux).[16]

DevHelp, a GTK+/GNOME browser for API documentation, used Gecko for rendering documents.[17]

Gecko is also used by Sugar for the OLPC XO-1 computer.[18] Gecko is used as a complete implementation of the XUL (XML User Interface Language). Gecko currently defines the XUL specification.

Products that have historically used Gecko include Pale Moon (now currently using Goanna), Songbird, Epiphany (now known as GNOME Web and using WebKitGTK+), Sunbird (calendar), and other web browsers including Swiftfox, Flock, Galeon, Camino, Minimo, Beonex Communicator, Kazehakase, and MicroB.

On Windows and similar platforms, Gecko depends on proprietary compilers.[19] Thus, FOSS distributions of Linux can not include the Gecko package used in the Windows compatibility layer Wine.[20]

After Gecko 2.0, the version number was bumped to 5.0 to match Firefox 5, and from then on has been kept in sync with the major version number for both Firefox and Thunderbird,[21] to reflect the fact that it is no longer a separate component.[22]

Bloat[edit]
In the Netscape era, a combination of poor technical and management decisions resulted in Gecko software bloat.[10][23][24] Thus in 2001 Apple chose to fork KHTML, not Gecko, to create the WebKit engine for its Safari browser.[23][24] However, by 2008 Mozilla had addressed some of the bloat problems, resulting in big performance improvements for Gecko.[25]

Future[edit]
In October 2016 Mozilla announced Quantum, an ongoing project encompassing several software development efforts to "build the next-generation web engine for Firefox users". It includes numerous improvements to Gecko, taken from the experimental Servo project.[26][27] Firefox 57, also known as "Firefox Quantum", first shipping in November 2017, is the initial version with major components from the Quantum/Servo projects enabled. These include increased performance in the CSS and GPU rendering components. Additional components will be merged from Servo to Gecko incrementally in future versions.[26]

See also[edit]
 Free and open-source software portal
Servo (layout engine)
Quantum (software)
References[edit]
^ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/about/legal/eula/
^ "Mozilla Licensing Policies". mozilla.org. Retrieved 2013-03-26.
^ "Embedding Mozilla". Mozilla.org. 2012-10-25. Retrieved 2012-10-31.
^ a b "Simple Firefox for Android build". Gecko is implemented using C++ and JavaScript.
^ https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!msg/mozilla.dev.platform/Gzwh1IbxvHE/7RlO21I6DwAJ
^ http://www.infoworld.com/article/31...binds-firefoxs-fate-to-the-rust-language.html
^ "MPL 2 Upgrade". Retrieved 2012-08-18.
^ https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Gecko/FAQ
^ "nglayout project: identity crisis". Mozilla.org. Archived from the original on 2011-06-29. Retrieved 2012-10-31.
^ a b Jorge O. Castro (2004-06-15). "Ars Technica sits down with Scott Collins from Mozilla.org". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2017-02-16.
^ "Mozilla CSS support chart". Developer.mozilla.org. 2012-08-04. Retrieved 2012-10-31.
^ "ECMAScript 5 support in Mozilla". Developer.mozilla.org. 2013-11-14. Retrieved 2013-12-02.
^ "Mozilla SVG Status". Mozilla.org. 2012-08-25. Retrieved 2012-10-31.
^ "Mozilla Adds Undetectable document.all Support, Part of New Novell Linux Distribution?". Developer.mozilla.org. 2004-07-23. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
^ "IE Uses Gecko Under Wine". Wine Wiki. Retrieved 2009-09-14.
^ "Picasa 3.0 for Linux". Google. Archived from the original on 2009-01-07. Retrieved 2008-12-28.
^ "Official package devhelp (0.19.1-6 and others) on Debian Lenny". Debian Project. Retrieved 2009-08-12.
^ Martens, China (2007-01-03). "One Laptop Per Child readies 'Sugar' interface". IDG News Service. Archived from the original on 2008-01-18. Retrieved 2007-12-28.
^ https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US...uide/Build_Instructions/Windows_Prerequisites
^ http://wiki.jswindle.com/index.php/Fedora#Working_Wine Archived June 11, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
^ "Gecko versions and application versions". MDN. Retrieved 2013-11-18.
^ "Not much in new Thunderbird 5, but roadmap looks promising". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2018-02-07.
^ a b Paul Festa (2003-01-14). "Apple snub stings Mozilla". CNET Networks. Archived from the original on 2009-09-06. Retrieved 2017-02-16.
^ a b David Baron (2003-01-09). "Thursday 2003-01-09". David Baron's weblog. self-published. Archived from the original on 2009-09-06. Retrieved 2017-02-16.
^ Ryan Paul (2008-09-09). "Why Mozilla is committed to Gecko as WebKit popularity grows". Retrieved 2017-02-16.
^ a b "Quantum". Mozilla Wiki. Retrieved 2017-04-20.
^ Cimpanu, Catalin. "Mozilla Announces Quantum, a New Browser Engine for Firefox". softpedia. Retrieved 2016-11-07.
External links[edit]
Gecko - Mozilla Developer Network
Gecko development wiki (wiki.mozilla.org)
Mozilla Product Strategy Proposal (DRAFT)
Web Browser Standards Support
JRex (Java API for Gecko)
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[Ang4MohTrump]

Still not fixed lah! Bastards! One whole fucking day past, cannot fixed an expired cert?

https://www.zdnet.com/article/firefox-add-ons-disabled-en-masse-after-mozilla-certificate-issue/

Firefox add-ons disabled en masse after Mozilla certificate issue
Firefox users report having add-ons disabled, being unable to re-activate or (re)-install extensions.


By Catalin Cimpanu for Zero Day | May 4, 2019 -- 05:42 GMT (13:42 GMT+08:00) | Topic: Open Source


Image via u/deleted_redacted on Reddit
An expired certificate on the Mozilla Add-ons infrastructure is disabling Firefox add-ons for millions of users, and is also preventing users from re-activating or (re-)installing extensions.

The issue doesn't impact all Firefox users, but it impacted enough to trigger a massive surge of complaints on Twitter, Reddit, and other social media sites.

At the time of writing, the issue is still impacting Firefox users. The browser maker has formally acknowledged the issue in an email to ZDNet, on Twitter, in a status page, and in a bug report.

"We're sorry that there is currently an issue where existing and new add-ons are failing to run or be installed on Firefox," a Mozilla spokesperson said. "We know what the issue is and are working hard to restore add-on functionality to Firefox as soon as possible."

"We'll continue to provide updates via our Twitter channels. Please bear with us while we get the problem fixed," the browser maker said.

So sorry for the issue we’re having with add-ons right now!

We’re working hard to fix it and will keep you updated.

— Firefox (@Firefox) May 4, 2019
Users of all Firefox versions, old and new, and Stable and Nightly, are impacted. The issue also impacts the Tor Browser, which supports Firefox add-ons.

For Firefox users that are currently impacted by this bug, an easy workaround would be to visit the about:config section and set xpinstall.signatures.required to false. This disables the extension signing mechanism in Firefox, the system through which the browser verifies that the local extension is one that's been installed from the central Mozilla Add-ons repository --and for which the signing certificate had expired.

Another possible way to resolve it, as recommended by many Firefox users, would be to turn system clocks before May 4, 12:00am UTC (the date at which the Mozilla certificate expired), but this would also break other apps running locally, and which depend on an accurate system clock.

Issue also prevents the installation of new add-ons. pic.twitter.com/Ovo4ovscHh

— Bad Packets Report (@bad_packets) May 4, 2019
Today's outage is happening because all Firefox add-ons are digitally signed since the release of Firefox 48, in the summer of 2016.

This mechanism was introduced to fight off malware distributors that were abusing Firefox add-ons; however, it indirectly centralized all add-ons management operations by tying all extensions to Mozilla's server infrastructure.

Updated on 9am ET: Mozilla has announced a temporary hotfix for the add-ons signing issue.

"We rolled out a hotfix that re-enables affected add-ons. The fix will be automatically applied in the background within the next few hours," the company said.


https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/4/18529456/mozilla-firefox-extensions-bug-certifications-error-fix



Mozilla is fixing a bug that stopped Firefox extensions from working
15
The fix is ongoing
By Andrew Liptak@AndrewLiptak May 4, 2019, 2:42pm EDT
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Image: Mozilla
Last night, Firefox users noticed an issue with their browsers: they couldn’t install extensions, and their existing add-ons stopped working. Mozilla says that the issue is due to a certificate expiration, and that it’s working to fix the issue.

In a blog post, Mozilla says that it’s identified the issue, and it’s begun rolling out a fix for users. “The fix will be automatically applied in the background within the next few hours. No active steps need to be taken to make add-ons work again.” (Emphasis Mozilla’s.) The company says that users shouldn’t try deleting and re-installing extensions, because it’ll remove any accumulated data. The fix that’s being rolled out won’t apply to Firefox ESR or Firefox for Android, and Mozilla says that it’s working to release a patch there as well.

Mozilla says that it’s using the Studies system to fix the error quickly, and if you’ve disabled that, you’ll need to reenable it. The post runs users through the steps that they need to take to make sure it’s on, to check and make sure that it’s been applied. The company also says that it’s working on a fix that won’t involve that system.

 

[krafty]

chrome is still the best! btw, be aware there three different variants of chrome:

~chrome

~chrome canary

~chromium

 

[motormafia]

chrome is still the best! btw, be aware there three different variants of chrome:

~chrome

~chrome canary

~chromium

Chrome lacks against Firefox that has more fine tuned user interfaces, like the classic user configurable MENU-bars, and UI behaviors, like whenever open a new tab switch to it automatically etc. Customized Tool Bars. A lot lah, many things you can configure exactly the way you want inside firefox.

Security wise also, you can fine tune permissions, of your location, camera, microphone notifications, etc. Can block websites from playing sound automatically, etc

Chrome is very RIGID compared with firefox. Nothing inside to let you adjust and control.


I am still not able to fix the issue, they claimed fix is released. But I tried unsuccessfully still.




https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2019/05/04/update-regarding-add-ons-in-firefox/

Mozilla Add-ons Blog
Mozilla
Update Regarding Add-ons in Firefox
Kev Needham
418 responses

MAY
4
2019
Last Updated: 00:54 EDT May 5 2019

Updates:

Some users are reporting that they do not have the “hotfix-update-xpi-signing-intermediate-bug-1548973” study active in “about:studies”. Rather than using work-arounds, which can lead to issues later on, we strongly recommend that you continue to wait. If it’s possible for you to receive the hotfix, you should get it by 6am EDT, 24 hours after it was first released. For everyone else, we are working to ship a more permanent solution. (May 5, 00:54 EDT)
There are a number of work-arounds being discussed in the community. These are not recommended as they may conflict with fixes we are deploying. We’ll let you know when further updates are available that we recommend, and appreciate your patience. (May 4, 15:01 EDT)
Temporarily disabled commenting on this post given volume and duplication. They’ll be re-enabled as more updates become available. (May 4, 13:02 EDT)
Updated the post to clarify that deleting extensions can result in data loss, and should not be used to attempt a fix. (May 4, 12:58 EDT)
Clarified that the study may appear in either the Active studies or Completed studies of “about:studies” (May 4, 12:10 EDT)
We’re aware that some users are reporting that their extensions remain disabled with both studies active. We’re tracking this issue on Bugzilla in bug 1549078. (May 4, 12:03 EDT)
Clarified that the Studies fix applies only to Desktop users of Firefox distributed by Mozilla. Firefox ESR, Firefox for Android, and some versions of Firefox included with Linux distributions will require separate updates. (May 4, 12:03 EDT)
Late on Friday May 3rd, we became aware of an issue with Firefox that prevented existing and new add-ons from running or being installed. We are very sorry for the inconvenience caused to people who use Firefox.

Our team has identified and rolled-out a fix for all Firefox Desktop users on Release, Beta and Nightly. The fix will be automatically applied in the background within the next few hours. No active steps need to be taken to make add-ons work again. In particular, please do not delete and/or re-install any add-ons as an attempt to fix the issue. Deleting an add-on removes any data associated with it, where disabling and re-enabling does not.

Please note: The fix does not apply to Firefox ESR or Firefox for Android. We’re working on releasing a fix for both, and will provide updates here and on social media.

To provide this fix on short notice, we are using the Studies system. This system is enabled by default, and no action is needed unless Studies have been disabled. Firefox users can check if they have Studies enabled by going to:

Firefox Options/Preferences -> Privacy & Security -> Allow Firefox to install and run studies (scroll down to find the setting)


Studies can be disabled again after the add-ons have been re-enabled
It may take up to six hours for the Study to be applied to Firefox. To check if the fix has been applied, you can enter “about:studies” in the location bar. If the fix is in the active, you’ll see “hotfix-update-xpi-signing-intermediate-bug-1548973” in either the Active studies or Completed studies as follows:



You may also see “hotfix-reset-xpi-verification-timestamp-1548973” listed, which is part of the fix and may be in the Active studies or Completed studies section(s).

We are working on a general fix that doesn’t use the Studies system and will keep this blog post updated accordingly. We will share a more substantial update in the coming days.

Additional sources of information:

@mozamo on Twitter
Support article
Forum thread

CATEGORIES: end users, general, releases, webextensions

 

[motormafia]

To compare firefox see all these that you can fine tune your browser:

about:preferences#general

about:preferences#home

about:preferences#search

about:preferences#privacy

about:preferences#sync

 

[motormafia]

Latest update:

While I was posting the last 2 message, the hot fix just came, and the issue is temporarily over.

 

[krafty]

the link below helps you to fine-tune your privacy concerns.

https://edu.gcfglobal.org/en/chrome/privacy-and-security-in-chrome/print/