Firefox marks all extensions as unsafe due to intermediate cert expiry

[brotherhood of LAN]

[bugzilla.mozilla.org...]

The TL;DR, if you're using firefox then all your extensions will be marked as unsafe and unusable because the browser treats the expired cert as a show stopper.

As far as I can tell, this is temporary as they've already applied a new certificate.

[blend27]

I have several instances of FF running with multiple Tabs open in each on PC and for the past several days FF was bugging me to update. So glad I skipped it at the time.

At the same time it is set to autoupdate on a tablet... Oh my the WEB is FUGLY like that.... All the Ads :(

I needed to lookup an old bookmarked(2 years) video on YouTube on how to change interior cabin air filter on my car early this morning. Couldn't figure out what was going on, Actually had to close FF and reopen it several times, I thought YouTube is broken for now.. 4 minutes of Ads to watch 92 seconds video. grrrrrr.....

Hopefully they'll fix it soon.

[lucy24]

Hee. This must be something they discovered in the Windows version and are racing to fix before rolling out the equivalent Mac version, because I haven't been prodded to update in the last few days (weeks?) and extensions are chugging along fine.

4 minutes of Ads to watch 92 seconds video. grrrrrr.....

The cleverer YouTube channels are now doing in-content advertising, just like TV in the 50s, so there's no way to bypass it. (But it's far less annoying, so there's that.)

[mcneely]

This must be something they discovered in the Windows version

Maybe so, but my Linux version of it is throwing a fit as well -- Even though Firefox has been driven by their angst to be the best (at blocking everything) There are some 3rd party writes that Mozilla can't even touch. Opera is my friend today -- Spent the morning setting it all up and when I'm done, I'll run with it until Mozilla decides to pull it's head out of the dog house on this.

Mozilla best make a quick turn-around though -- Since humans are generally creatures of habit, I may end up just running Opera if I end up liking it. All of the plugins that Mozilla shut off run just fine on Opera - Ported my bookmarks to Opera ... Installed my favourite plugins to it .. a few other minor where-with-alls and I'm a happy guy.

YouTube channels are now doing in-content advertising

Haven't noticed this -- But I'm still not at all surprised. This whole YouTube deal is a farce these days anyhow -- People seem to think that Google still owns YouTube, when the fact of the matter is that it's the advertisers that own it -- Google is just the middle man. /sarcasm

Oh my the WEB is FUGLY like that

Precisely why the browser folks are beginning to include ad blocking as an option in their latest builds.

[Malanje]

But those built in ad blockers don't block search ads. Only Ublock Origin extension doest it.

[tangor]

Broke every extension on my install. Even doing overrides in about:config saw no love. Not a happy camper. As for Ublock Origin, it won't even install.

[mcneely]

As for Ublock Origin, it won't even install.

Opera is your friend

[JS_Harris]

I hate software that decides what to do for me and does not let me make it do as I want. Locking up about:config commands, forcing updates(or reminders) etc was already wearing thin.

Opera is an option, and so is TOR. Now would be as good a time as any to make the switch.

[Solution1]

Firefox extensions do work again for me.

If the extensions still don't work for you:
You do need to have Firefox Studies turned on, as they're using the Studies mechanism to apply the hotfixes. In Options -> Privacy and Security, under 'Firefox Data Collection and Use,' you must have checked 'Allow Firefox to install and run studies'.

You can see whether the hotfixes are applied by entering 'about:studies' in the address bar. They are 'hotfix-reset-xpi-verification-timestamp-1548973' and 'hotfix-update-xpi-signing-intermediate-bug-1548973'.

[tangor]

Kind of defeats the whole purpose of privacy if you have to give up data to run extensions.

About to lose a customer since version 2...

[aristotle]

For the way I browse, Firefox is so versatile, with so much configurabilty, that I've always been able to set it up to conveniently do everything I want, without needing any extensions or plugins. I've tried two or three in the past, but didn't find them to be of much value and uninstalled them

Opera is a good browser, and I use it for a few special tasks, but I like Firefox better for general browsing.

I don't do much general browsing on my android tablet, but would recommend the Opera Mini, which doesn't have many advanced features, but is very light weight and simple to use.

[graeme_p]

Its ridiculous not to allow users to override these settings.

My OS lets me install unsigned packages if I want to. Why can Firefox not do the same.

[graeme_p]

Its working again, but we definitely need more local control. Some of these plugins are part of my work flow so its very disruptive if they break.

[tangor]

Mine's still not working.

[azlinda]

Mine isn't working either. I'm plenty angry about it also. If it isn't fixed by the day's end, I will go back to Opera.

[tangor]

Okay ... finally updated/restored my addons.

Still, one hairy mess of foobar that never needed to happen in the first place. @azlinda, shut your browser for at least fifteen minutes, then load it back up. Seems the "update" process likes to start with a fresh running instance.

[JS_Harris]

Yeah but the "fix" is a further intrusion onto your PC and the "fix" doesn't prevent recurrence or restore the control you had once upon a time.

I apparently can't set up Firefox how I want anymore, even many about:config entries are locked, so I'll find a browser I can. TOR, Tails and a VPN seems in order with all the censorship stuff going on.

[azlinda]

Thank you, Tangor. I will try that.

[graeme_p]

@JS_Harris Mozilla seems to have a bad case of "we know what is good for you" at odds with is supposedly open source and empower users ethos.

[aristotle]

I was gone for a few hours and when I returned and turned on my computer, there was a notice from Firefox that a new update is available.... Version 66.0.4.

I said "Okay' , and it downloaded and installed it. But not sure that this has anything to do with extensions or plug-ins, because my Firefox doesn't have any.

[lucy24]

But not sure that this has anything to do with extensions or plug-ins, because my Firef-0ox doesn't have any.

The page at bugzilla says the, uhm, bug applies to everything in the 66 family. (“66 branch” in their language.) I’m currently in 66.0.3 and am now being prompted to update to 66.0.4--but only if I look at the “About Firefox” window.

:: detour to do so and see what happens ::

:: returning two minutes later ::

Nope, no visible changes.

Huh. And this doesn’t actually have to do with the Firefox that’s physically installed on your own computer, does it? It’s more about things that happen when some aspect of FF has to phone home.

[Lexur]

66.0.4 solves the issue on Windows.

[mozilla.org ]

[engine]

Here's full detail from Mozilla [blog.mozilla.org...]

[mcneely]

Seems to be back on track this morning.
Two Mint boxes and one Elementary OS box I left totally alone during this whole dropping the ball thing that Mozilla did and after this mornings reboot, all of the plugins/addons were as they were before.

Still going to set up Opera on these boxes configured as close as possible to what I've got in Firefox and save it off on the back end for all of the just in case's down the road. Cert renewal isn't rocket science, and if Mozilla let this one get past them, I can't help but wonder about some of the other things they might let slip through the cracks.

Next time I'll be ready -- and maybe not as forgiving

edit

As an aside, never had studies turned on, and will never have studies turned on ---

[graeme_p]

I am looking at switching to Falkon or Konqueror. Does anyone use Palemoon? What else is out there?

[Solution1]

After updating to 66.0.4, I turned off Firefox Studies in the privacy settings.
The extensions still work.

[blend27]

On a positive note this whole thing made me update my HOSTS file(MVPS copy) ahead of schedule on windows boxes and on all rooted Android tablets. And also set FF not to automatically update at all.

I did lose some Dev time due to NoScript being disabled though, I use it extensively when testing.

[brotherhood of LAN]

I just ended up disabling everything and using it bare bones. Any extension I feel like using can be on another profile and tends to be temporary anyways. The firefox dev tools and console are good for most things. See the web in its full glory... ads and all.

[aristotle]

Just updated to Version 66.0.5

The update notes say:

Further improvements to re-enable web extensions which had been disabled for users with a master password set (Bug 1549249).

[lucy24]

users with a master password set

Aha! THAT was the variable. (I don't have a password in FF; I use Keychain.)