TBB for Windows 2.2.24-1 alpha searches for system-wide plugins

[Marty]

Firefox's ability to search the Windows registry path for system-wide plugins and extensions is not disabled!

Compare: ​https://gitweb.torproject.org/torbrowser.git/blob_plain/HEAD:/README
"disable Firefox's ability to search the Windows registry path for system-wide plugins and extensions (closes: #2118)"

[Marty]

Tor Browser Bundle (2.2.24-1) alpha

[HG2G]

Replying to Marty:

Firefox's ability to search the Windows registry path for system-wide plugins and extensions is not disabled!

Compare: ​https://gitweb.torproject.org/torbrowser.git/blob_plain/HEAD:/README
"disable Firefox's ability to search the Windows registry path for system-wide plugins and extensions (closes: #2118)"

On my system (Windows XP SP3) TBB 2.2.24-1 alpha does not search for all installed plugins as TBB did before resolution of bug 2218 https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/2118. TBB 2.2.24-1 alpha has the appropriate user_pref setting in prefs.js setting: user_pref("extensions.enabledScopes", 5);.

On my system the only system wide plugin found by TBB 2.2.24-1 alpha is "Foxit Reader Plugin for Mozilla 2.0.0.1102". When testing portable Firefox 4.0 ​http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable and installed Firefox 4.0 all the system wide plugins are found, see this screen shot: ​http://i55.tinypic.com/33z2u7c.jpg

So it seems user_pref("extensions.enabledScopes", 5); is working as expected, to a point. I tried other integers to prevent TBB 2.2.24-1 alpha from finding the Foxit plugin, i.e., -1 and 100, but they were not successful (I realize neither of those integers are options for extensions.enabledScopes). As per the bug report 2118 https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/2118 I looked for the file "nsExtensionManager.js" but it does not seem to be used for Firefox 4.

[erinn]

The "documentation" for this feature is here:
​http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/toolkit/mozapps/extensions/AddonManager.jsm#1013

I'm happy to hear that it partially works. Did you try '1'? The 5 is meant to be "scope profile" + "scope application" (what the Mozilla people advised), but apparently that is too lenient.

If this doesn't work, it may be new patch time.

[HG2G]

Hi Erinn,

Replying to erinn:

The "documentation" for this feature is here:
​http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/toolkit/mozapps/extensions/AddonManager.jsm#1013

I'm happy to hear that it partially works. Did you try '1'? The 5 is meant to be "scope profile" + "scope application" (what the Mozilla people advised), but apparently that is too lenient.

If this doesn't work, it may be new patch time.

Thankfully no, it seems a patch is unnecessary because user_pref("extensions.enabledScopes", 1); is working to prevent loading of all system wide plugins, at least on my system :>.

The odd thing is user_pref("extensions.enabledScopes", 1); nor user_pref("extensions.enabledScopes", 5); work to prevent loading of system wide plugins for installed FF 4.0 and portable FF 4.0 (from portable apps). I don't have time right now to look through relevant TBB 2.2.24-1 alpha and/or TorButton alpha settings to find what else is configured to prevent loading system wide plugins; maybe later today I will have time unless you or Mike can shed some light on this subject?

Also, from a quick test it seems setting "extensions.enabledScopes" to '0' prevents loading of all system wide plugins in TBB 2.2.24-1 alpha, but to my understanding that should not be the case ... odd.

Note: This current testing with '1' was done under a guest account, previous testing with '5' '-1' and '100' was done under both admin and guest accounts. I will test '1' under admin account later today, however, the same result should be found with TBB regardless of user account rules (re admin vs guest).

[erinn]

Oh, thank you so much for testing! That's great news. I am pleased that it is a small change.

I don't know offhand why that pref doesn't work alone, but if you want to look through the windows prefs I use, they are here:
​https://gitweb.torproject.org/erinn/torbrowser.git/blob/9e2aab2df1b8294e78acab08aa823154f7f9ebb6:/build-scripts/config/windows-4.0.js

Maybe it's some of the user_pref("plugin[...]) stuff?

[HG2G]

Hi Erinn,

I will check out the prefs shortly, thanks for the link, that makes life easier. On first thought I think you may be correct that it could be from (some?) plugin settings. I will post again if I find the answer. Thanks.

[erinn]

I'm uploading some new FF4 bundles now and this doesn't seem to work at all on OS X. My sense is that it is optimized for Windows right now, so it might be something we want to poke Mozilla people about.

I've been looking at this page: ​http://kb.mozillazine.org/Plugin_scanning

Which links to this: ​http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=915796#915796

Which indicates that I can probably go through the all.js in the source, prior to compilation, and just comment out the things I don't like.

[mikeperry]

It appears that enabledScopes now works on MacOS X. However, it is still too blunt an instrument. See #3547 for the plan for the future. If enabledScopes is still broken on Windows, we don't really care, since we want to focus on providing a way to only search for flash..