up vote 0 down vote favorite
1
share [g+] share [fb]

"Make your Firefox faster, safer and stable with few mouse clicks "article says that many companies installs really DANGEROUS plugins in Firefox. I love Firefox but I must admit that it is a security risk since it allows plugin installation so easily. It should at least pop-up a message like "A plugin was installed stealthy. Do you want to disable it?"

My question is (because I don't really want to uninstall Firefox) how can I make Firefox not to accept new plugins? Maybe if I delete some files I can cripple Firefox plugin system until it is not working at all - but Firefox still works. I looked in my installed plugins (indeed I have that dangerous plugin installed) and I need none of them!

link|improve this question
93% accept rate
1  
I think "really DANGEROUS" is a bit over the top. I've looked where the article says and never found anything there that was dangerous or even unreasonable. Have you had problems with Firefox being compromised? It looks like the java one is the only one to consider getting rid of due to the security vulnerability. You can update java to fix that though. – mouche Jul 27 '10 at 16:05
1  
"A plugin was installed stealthy...." - can a plugin be installed stealthily? I always get a warning. Plugins are one of the best things about Firefox. TBH, if it wasn't for the plugins I'd probably be using one of the other browsers. – w3d Jul 27 '10 at 16:56
1  
I wouldn't trust the blog you linked either, it kind of looks like a fake site made by a PR company (a not-very-professional one) – MGOwen Jul 29 '10 at 3:14
2  
@w3d: Plug-ins, as in Flash Player, not extensions, as in Adblock Plus. They can be installed without notification by third-party software. – Sasha Chedygov Jul 31 '10 at 4:27
1  
@musicfreak - ah, yes, thanks for the clarification. – w3d Jul 31 '10 at 8:17
show 3 more comments
feedback

4 Answers

up vote 5 down vote

To disable all of Firefox's add-ons, you have to open the browser in its Safe Mode (no relation to Windows' own Safe Mode) by clicking Start > All Programs > Mozilla Firefox > Mozilla Firefox (Safe Mode).

In the Firefox Safe Mode dialog box that appears before Firefox opens, click "Disable all add-ons" and choose the Make Changes and Restart button to run the browser with no add-ons or extensions enabled.

A quicker way is to press the Windows key (in XP, follow this by pressing R), type Firefox -safe-mode, and press Enter.

link|improve this answer
Is this answer what you are looking for? If so, please accept the question. And upvote if you want ;) – r0ca Jul 28 '10 at 16:02
I think I rather aim for "how can I make Firefox not to accept anymore plugins" – Altar Jul 29 '10 at 2:56
Plugins are suggested to you. It's your own decision to install them or not. So basically, you can't just disable add-ins auto-install feature (Because there's none) in firefox – r0ca Aug 24 '10 at 17:45
feedback
up vote 2 down vote accepted

There is no option to disable automatic plugin installation. All the user can do to prevent against this extremely dangerous Firefox loophole is to check the plugin list every few days (which I do).

link|improve this answer
feedback
up vote 0 down vote

In Firefox options menu, just choose the security tab and make sure "Warn me when sites try to install add-ons" is ticked.

Not sure why or how you turned it off, but that should fix it.

Odd that Firefox allows this at all - shouldn't be an option in my opinion, though I understand why there is an exceptions list.

link|improve this answer
1  
The plugins were installed by local software and not by web sites. – Altar Jul 31 '10 at 4:03
OK, that makes a pretty big difference. Please edit the question to make it clear that there is a difference between add-ons installed by web sites and plug-ins installed by other apps on your local computer. – MGOwen Aug 3 '10 at 4:29
Well, you should look up for these definitions by yourself. I didn't invented them. They are standard. There is nothing to clarify. – Altar Oct 11 '10 at 20:18
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.