Waterfox: UX, privacy, security: consider defaulting to disallow unsigned extensions

[grahamperrin]

With Stylish 3.1.3 as an example, a comparison …

Firefox 61.0.1 user experience

1. about:config?filter=xpinstall.signatures.required
2. observe the yellow alert, Here be dragons! …
3. accept the risk
4. make xpinstall.signatures.required false
5. aim to install the extension
6. observe the yellow alert, the generic caution about unverified add-ons
7. Add
8. at about:addons, observe a single yellow alert, with a generic link – _More information_ – that works
9. eventually, receive a heartbeat message about unavailability of Stylish, with a link – _Learn more_ – that works.

Visually

Stylish - Custom themes for any website could not be verified for use in Firefox. Proceed with caution. More Information

– with (in my case) more information https://support.mozilla.org/1/firefox/61.0/FreeBSD/en-US/unsigned-addons redirecting to https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/add-on-signing-in-firefox?as=u&utm_source=inproduct.

Learning more:

(3.1.3 is not yet blocked, but that's a separate issue – off-topic from Waterfox.)

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…

[grahamperrin]

The comparison …

Waterfox 56.2.1 user experience

1. aim to install the extension
2. observe the yellow alert, the generic caution about unverified add-ons
3. Add
4. at about:addons the uppermost yellow alert includes a link that does not work
5. the line below the first yellow alert is another link that does not work
6. the yellow alert for Stylish includes a link that does work
7. no heartbeat – no hint that a prior version (3.1.1) is blocked.

Common UX

A welcome to Stylish, for example:

Related

• https://github.com/MrAlex94/Waterfox/commit/436898372f8589d4a241e924084119358c58bf45 (2018-05-15) modified checks for compatibility; and the about:addons GUI to enable checking is not effective
• about:addons 'Check to see if your plugins are up to date' · Issue #336 …
• https://www.reddit.com/comments/7ijjzb/-/dqzgb5h/ (2017-12-09) about heartbeat prompts in the context of SHIELD
• https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Shield

Meta, tracking: #538

[grahamperrin]

Thoughts

With Waterfox 56.2.1 it's too easy to install unsigned, possibly malicious add-ons.

True: there's a yellow alert at installation time, but those dialogues (and related reference materials) are sometimes verbose and/or difficult for an end user to understand.

Assume that the user will pay little or no attention. PEBKAM, but this should not detract from the wish for Waterfox to take a more cautious approach.

Critically: learning to ignore non-working alerts – https://github.com/MrAlex94/Waterfox/issues/695#issuecomment-404402781 steps 4 and 5, for example – increases the likelihood of end users paying insufficient attention to genuine alerts.

Suggestion

1. xpinstall.signatures.required true by default
2. for users who require unsigned add-ons, document what's required.

https://github.com/MrAlex94/Waterfox/blob/01e6727879b2aa363daa2bdd9878ca7df5039d96/modules/libpref/init/all.js#L4957

– is that it?

[MrAlex94]

Sorry, but this is one of the features as even disabling wasn't working for a while on Firefox before they completely disabled it. A lot of older add-ons won't be signed and there's quite a few users use this. If you so wish, disable it for yourself :-)

[grahamperrin]

Thanks, understood. It'll help me to draft something for an FAQ.