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Microsoft Update Slips In a Firefox Extension
An anonymous reader writes "While doing a weekly scrub of my Windows systems, which includes checking for driver updates and running virus scans, I found Firefox notifying me of a new add-on. It's labelled 'Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant,' and it 'Adds ClickOnce support and the ability to report installed .NET versions to the web server.' The add-on could not be uninstalled in the usual way. A little Net searching turned up a number of sites offering advice on getting rid of the unrequested add-on." The unasked-for extension has been hitchhiking along with updates to Visual Studio, and perhaps other products that depend on .NET, since August. It appears to have gone wider recently, coming in with updates to XP SP3.
And if I don't want to advertise my computer's susceptibility to .NET-based malware? If I don't want to run embedded Mafia$oft crap in Firefox, which is probably 50% or more of why I use it in the first fracking place?
And what the frack is Firefox doing allowing "extensions" to be installed behind my back in the first place??? Are they purposely trying to piss me off, or did they have controls in place to prevent this, which M$ managed to somehow bypass? If the latter, why isn't there already a patch available and why wasn't I asked to install it???
Granted, it's partly my employer's fault for forcing me to use M$ operating systems in the first place . . . but I'm beyond pissed off at M$ at this point, and if the Mozilla folks don't have a DAMN good explanation for how and why this happened, and how they will prevent it from ever happening again, then I will begin a search for alternatives.
I feel like kneecapping someone. :(
Nonaggression works!