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Mozilla Bans Popular Firefox Add-On That Tampered With Security Settings (softpedia.com)

Posted by timothy on from the you-crossed-the-line-but-then-erased-it dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Mozilla has banned the popular (250,000+ installs) YouTube Unblock add-on that allowed users to view YouTube clips blocked in their country. The reason for this move is because the add-on was caught disabling a Firefox security setting (code signing) which the allowed it to silent-install another add-on, which Avast (antivirus software) was detecting as malware. Earlier in 2015, the same plugin was again caught cheating when it was using an self-contained update system that was bypassing Mozilla's add-on review process.

2 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. Re: Let THE USER Decide by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    "The add-on remains available through its homepage."
    The user still can decide. Mozilla only removed it from their add-on marketplace, which is IMO the correct action and certainly not any kind of overreach. That's like saying Google is wrong for banning Android apps from the Play Store which root your phone - it's not, they have policies and those apps knowingly violated them; if you still want those apps side loading is available.

  2. Re:other browsers with Firefox-like add-ons by arth1 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Or you could just install Classic Theme Restorer, since palemoon isn't 100% compatible with firefox addons and made by amateurs.

    From a security point of view, Palemoon failed even at step one, installation. Its Linux installer *requires* that the system is set up for gratuitous sudo. Anything that asks for a system password during installation is something I will not install. And a system password that for an account that is set up to have root access for any command when the account password is given? No, just no.

    (And never mind that they can't be bothered to list the prerequisites either.)