Are there security issues with FTP, or do people just not use it enough because HTTP supplants it? I haven't used FTP in a while to download files.
The only FTP I use these days is really SFTP
Mozilla will remove FTP support in Firefox
11–20 of 86 posts
Re: Mozilla will remove FTP support in Firefox
#12I'm curious as to how many people use FTP in the browser?
Firmwares, drivers, distro isos, tarballs are traditionally distributed on (anonymous) ftp.
Given that such downloads should be authenticated using ftp is non-ideal though, I guess.
Re: Mozilla will remove FTP support in Firefox
#13One more reason not to use firefox. Firefox became the younger brother of Chrome. Why they can't be independent and think for themselves ?
So what are you suggesting?
Re: Mozilla will remove FTP support in Firefox
#14Are there security issues with FTP, or do people just not use it enough because HTTP supplants it? I haven't used FTP in a while to download files.
Plaintext passwords over the net. Also, it's somewhat painful for NAT because it opens up a second port that isn't a named one, the client sends that port number to the server, then the server opens a connection to the client.
That's for active FTP, which basically nobody uses anymore (since it's incompatible with most firewalls).
Most clients use the passive FTP extension, in which the server sends the client a host/port pair to connect to for the data connection. Still painful, but slightly less so.
Re: Mozilla will remove FTP support in Firefox
#15I love discussions about browsers on Hacker News! They're amazing. Half the people ranting how some insanely complicated technical decision is going to ruin the world, the other half yelling at them that this is necessary, others ranting about how the vendor is evil for some reason, etc. Just lovely!
Re: Mozilla will remove FTP support in Firefox
#16I'm curious as to how many people use FTP in the browser?
There are some areas where FTP is still used and an easy options. Like datafeeds of affiliate platforms. Having support for accessing those in Firefox was super useful.
Re: Mozilla will remove FTP support in Firefox
#17Re: Mozilla will remove FTP support in Firefox
#18Are there security issues with FTP, or do people just not use it enough because HTTP supplants it? I haven't used FTP in a while to download files.
For sure it is unencrypted, so it is vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks.
I'm sure the majority of people that still use FTP aren't relying on a browser for access but people still use it. Why not just deprecate standard FTP and only support FTPS and SFTP?
Re: Mozilla will remove FTP support in Firefox
#19One more reason not to use firefox. Firefox became the younger brother of Chrome. Why they can't be independent and think for themselves ?
No Gecko and no Chrome? I'm waiting for you to say we should all start using Brave. Please say it.
Re: Mozilla will remove FTP support in Firefox
#20Are there security issues with FTP, or do people just not use it enough because HTTP supplants it? I haven't used FTP in a while to download files.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Transfer_Protocol#Securit... lists many issues. The worst is that FTP transmits user names and passwords in cleartext.
Having said that: nowadays it isn’t uncommon to say “FTP server” for a server running SFTP, its secure replacement, so it isn’t clear to me what exactly is being removed from Firefox.