Sneaky Microsoft Add-On Put Firefox Users At Risk

CWmike writes to mention that the "Windows Presentation Foundation" plugin that Microsoft slipped into Firefox last February apparently left the popular browser open to attack. This was among the many things recently addressed in the massive Tuesday patch. "What was particularly galling to users was that once installed, the .NET add-on was virtually impossible to remove from Firefox. The usual 'Disable' and 'Uninstall' buttons in Firefox's add-on list were grayed out on all versions of Windows except Windows 7, leaving most users no alternative other than to root through the Windows registry, a potentially dangerous chore, since a misstep could cripple the PC. Several sites posted complicated directions on how to scrub the .NET add-on from Firefox, including Annoyances.org."

Comments

except Windows 7

[nurb432]

Best upgrade then ya lusers!.. Here is an online form to order your shiny new pc with Windows 7..

Re:remember the important part

[jalefkowit]

That's what SHE said!

(sorry, couldn't resist)

Re:Sabotage?

[PopeRatzo]

Who gave Glenn Beck a webcam?

Re:Sabotage?

[PopeRatzo]

I'm the one who found and reported one of the vulnerabilities (CVE-2009-0090 [microsoft.com]) in this batch that affects Firefox, and I strongly doubt that it was in any way intentional...remember that IE is hit much worse

You're spoiling everyone's fun, you know that?

Re:Sabotage?

[JimboFBX]

Nah, the instructions are missing a reference to an obscure library somewhere that the user was some how already supposed to have with no link as to where to download it.