The Gang of Five

Beyond the Mysterious Beyond => Hobbies and Recreation => Computer and Electronics => Topic started by: rhombus on May 04, 2019, 12:11:08 AM

Title: Firefox cerficiation issue unverifies all add-ons
Post by: rhombus on May 04, 2019, 12:11:08 AM
I just figured I would mention this in case anyone uses Firefox and is wondering what happened with their addons. As of 12:00 am UTC, nearly all Firefox extensions are disabled due to the fact that their developers let the intermediate signing certificate expire. This colossal screw up is making all Firefox installs treat all addons as unsigned.

Now if you are surprised that Mozilla's certification system allowed them to nuke addons from your browser with no opt-out, then join the club.  The r/firefox reddit is going nuts right now.  I will post updates here as I become aware of them though, in light of this latest incident, this might be a good time for me to consider other browser options.

(https://i.imgur.com/t08qB3V.png)
Title: Re: Firefox cerficiation issue unverifies all add-ons
Post by: Anagnos on May 04, 2019, 02:41:09 AM
Google Chrome has worked for me years with no problems whatsoever. I just about use Firefox, only on the computers of my school, and now not even that anymore since they got taken away.  :PCera

Internet Explorer, I've used as well, but I can honestly say that I prefer Chrome over anything right now.  :)
Title: Re: Firefox cerficiation issue unverifies all add-ons
Post by: Ducky123 on May 04, 2019, 07:06:32 AM
I haven't restarted mine since that incident so I guess my add-ons still work? At least my adblock still seems to be intact  :thinking
Title: Re: Firefox cerficiation issue unverifies all add-ons
Post by: DiddyKF1 on May 04, 2019, 10:13:53 AM
I still have my adblocker ... at least, for now ...

I quit using Google Chrome because it sucked up my memory and made my computer freeze constantly, and I switched to Firefox because it was more reliable than Chrome.
Title: Re: Firefox cerficiation issue unverifies all add-ons
Post by: rhombus on May 04, 2019, 01:00:04 PM
Okay, my add-ons just became active again so I would assume that they have applied a fix. Still, this is a rather embarrassing screw up by someone on their team.  As for Chrome, I do not use it due to some rather serious privacy issues.  I have considered trying some builds of Chromium that have privacy enhancements, however.
Title: Re: Firefox cerficiation issue unverifies all add-ons
Post by: ImpracticalDino on May 04, 2019, 04:40:06 PM
That's certainly...interesting to say the least. My add-ons didn't break at all, but then again I wasn't using Firefox for the entire time allotted that they had a certification issue and were fixing it afterwards.

For me personally, I have used Firefox since the day I found out about the browser. I was attracted to it for some reason, don't remember why. I do know why I continue to use it however, because of their mission statement and the fact that they're committed to making privacy the number one priority. I was also super happy to see Firefox Quantum, showing their dedication to make the browsing experience better for everyone. Google Chrome, like rhombus has said has some major privacy issues.

Also, I HATE the fact that certain websites prevent you from using their services or accessing them unless you use a different browser (i.e Google Chrome). :anger But guess what... if you change your browser user agent to the browser they want you to use, it actually works perfectly fine. And even if it truly had issues on certain browsers, just give people some kind of warning and let them proceed anyway. Google Chrome already has dominance over the internet market share, and it's going to get worse if developers only develop for the interest of one browser only. We don't want to go back to the days of Internet Explorer now, do we?

*UPDATE* - My add-ons did end up breaking due to that certificate issue you were talking about, but since there was already a fix out, I just downloaded the patch and everything was fixed momentarily.