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All extensions disabled due to expiration of intermediate signing cert

bugzilla.mozilla.org

171–180 of 955 posts

Re: All extensions disabled due to expiration of intermediate signing cert

#171
post #66
post #12

I’ll still keep using Firefox since I recognize the importance of browser diversity and the hazards of a Chrome monoculture (that and vertical tabs), but, yikes. Still, this type of oversight seems all too common even in large companies. I remember several cases from Fortune 500 companies in the past few years alone. What would be a good way to automate checking for them? Has anyone developed a tool designed specific…

> Still, this type of oversight seems all too common even in large companies. (...) Has anyone developed a tool designed specifically to avoid certificate expiry disasters? LetsEncrypt renewal is supposed to be automated. [1] I know of a company that hosted blogs for thousands of customers. They used LetsEncrypt, but the CTO considered automatic renewals a possible security risk, so they did it manually. Problem is,…

Some shared hosting like Bluehost now provide LetsEncrypt by default for all their sites with auto-renewal (But I don't recommend Bluehost shared plans for anything even closer to serious hobby due to absurd downtimes like most other shared hosting).

I used manual renewal for LetsEncrypt for about 4 websites on other shared hosts & renewing them every 3 months was a pain; had to keep reminders and schedules just not to miss renewals until I synchronised their renewal schedules to batch (manual) renewing them.

I had automated renewal for 1 website on a cloud server, it was a one time effort, I never had to bother about SSL cert for that site and the most favourable of them all.

Re: All extensions disabled due to expiration of intermediate signing cert

#173

There's a workaround that involves going to about:config and setting xpinstall.signatures.required to false. However, if you're running the Stable or Beta version, it will only work under Linux. On Windows and MacOS you'll need to download Nightly or the Developer Edition. To fix this on MacOS I did the following: 1. Downloaded and installed Firefox Nightly 2. Ran /Applications/Firefox\ Nightly.app/Contents/MacOS/fir…

Doesn't work for me. Using Arch Linux. I was already on Nightly when this happened.

Re: All extensions disabled due to expiration of intermediate signing cert

#174
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just abusive to the vast majority of users who do not care but still want to use SSL for their servers, frankly. I should be allowed to choose a near unlimited lifetime for my server's certificate if I don't care about the risks that may present.

Security tends towards the lowest common denominator. I'd rather you just figured out how to run a cron job. The problem comes if your keys ever get compromised or cracked all your historical traffic becomes vulnerable instead of just the most recent window.

Yeah "just" a cron job except the implementation changes several times a year. Somehow this automated process was more time-consuming than the previous, manual one.

Re: All extensions disabled due to expiration of intermediate signing cert

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its also more secure. Long lived certs risk the possibility that someone who used to own the domain got a certificate on it and it still works after the domain is resold. Once you automate it there is no downside to short lived certs.

If only there were a way to revoke certificates. Like, some kind of list.

If only such a list were actually effective rather than the majority of clients not bothering to check it.

Re: All extensions disabled due to expiration of intermediate signing cert

#176
post #74

This is why users need to be in control of their own computers. Why can't I tell my copy of Firefox to ignore the certificate? Why can't I sign my own extensions? Mistakes happen, it's okay. But users should be empowered to work around them.

Because it's hard to tell the difference between "users" and "malicious software running on their computers".

If the malicious software can adjust protected user settings, can't it also just inject into the Firefox process directly?

If there's a privilege level that allows for one but not the other, that sounds like something Mozilla should fix.

Re: All extensions disabled due to expiration of intermediate signing cert

#177

This is why users need to be in control of their own computers. Why can't I tell my copy of Firefox to ignore the certificate? Why can't I sign my own extensions? Mistakes happen, it's okay. But users should be empowered to work around them.

Makes me think of this ticket no work around for the error other than closing the browser and editing a file or modifying the browser and recompiling. No options at all in the advance settings.

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1528738

It's stuff like this that makes me unhappy with mozzilla. User's who know what they are doing should be permitted to do so. Warn them here be dragons or whatever, but it's ultimately their choice.

Re: All extensions disabled due to expiration of intermediate signing cert

#178

As a temporary fix, go to about:debugging, and click "load temporary addon", then paste in the download link of the missing add-on. Then just try and not restart Firefox until they fix the broken cert.

This works. On a desktop, you can reload installed addons from the firefox profile folder >> extensions.

Re: All extensions disabled due to expiration of intermediate signing cert

#179
post #2

Looks like all extensions have been disabled for all Firefox users. I think this fail-closed behavior is more of a security issue than the one it is trying to solve. All of my security add-ons - Privacy Badger, NoScript, Decentraleyes, and many more were disabled. Even worse, it happened without notice to the user. One moment I was browsing the internet (just barely) secured by these add-ons, and the next moment, all…

If it failed open, anyone unlucky enough to update their extensions could end up having a malicious version installed. It also would have taken longer to notice.

So why not just disable extension updates instead of disabling the extensions themselves?
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