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How do I get rid of persistent Imgur prefs in about:config?

JohnCorliss
JohnCorliss
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In the past few months, I've had the Imgur.com website host a few images (uploaded from my hard drive) for me so that I could put links to them in some messages I posted to usenet.

Please note two things: 1. I've never had the Imgur Uploader extension (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/imgur-uploader/) installed, ever. 2. I always clean out my cookies whenever I shut down Firefox.

This morning, while looking around in about:config, I noticed the following two prefs:

devtools.gcli.imgurUploadURL (set to https://api.imgur.com/3/image) devtools.gcli.imgurClientID (set to a unique identifier which I won't post here)

WHAT. THE. HECK?

I shut down Firefox, waited a while and then opened the prefs.js from my profile folder up in a text editor. I then manually removed the two settings from that file and saved it. When I started Firefox back up and checked though, the two settings were right back where they'd been in about:config and with the original values! I went so far as to try this twice, with the same result both times.

Next, with Firefox running, I deleted the values from those two prefs in about:config, then shut down and restarted Firefox. The values remained deleted, but the prefs are still listed in about:config. So I tried right clicking on the prefs and selecting "Reset" on both of them them. That only restores the values and doesn't remove the prefs.

Does anybody know how did those two prefs get put into my prefs.js file in the first place and why they keep coming back?

Does Mozilla have some kind of arrangement with that website or am I infected by some kind of malware I picked up at the Imgur website?

If it's possible for a website to edit my prefs.js file and store information there, then cookies are the least of my concerns!

In the past few months, I've had the Imgur.com website host a few images (uploaded from my hard drive) for me so that I could put links to them in some messages I posted to usenet. Please note two things: 1. I've never had the Imgur Uploader extension (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/imgur-uploader/) installed, ever. 2. I always clean out my cookies whenever I shut down Firefox. This morning, while looking around in about:config, I noticed the following two prefs: devtools.gcli.imgurUploadURL (set to https://api.imgur.com/3/image) devtools.gcli.imgurClientID (set to a unique identifier which I won't post here) WHAT. THE. HECK? I shut down Firefox, waited a while and then opened the prefs.js from my profile folder up in a text editor. I then manually removed the two settings from that file and saved it. When I started Firefox back up and checked though, the two settings were right back where they'd been in about:config and with the original values! I went so far as to try this twice, with the same result both times. Next, with Firefox running, I deleted the values from those two prefs in about:config, then shut down and restarted Firefox. The values remained deleted, but the prefs are still listed in about:config. So I tried right clicking on the prefs and selecting "Reset" on both of them them. That only restores the values and doesn't remove the prefs. Does anybody know how did those two prefs get put into my prefs.js file in the first place and why they keep coming back? Does Mozilla have some kind of arrangement with that website or am I infected by some kind of malware I picked up at the Imgur website? If it's possible for a website to edit my prefs.js file and store information there, then cookies are the least of my concerns!

Chosen solution

After reading this bug:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=992386

I found this:

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/imgur/AJcTXtiOMPk

In the second link, Christian Heilmann described how the two prefs are used in the devtools: _______________________________________________________________________ The story is this: Firefox Developer tools have a great feature that when you press shift-F2 you get a command line to do all kind of things with the browser. One of them is "screenshot" which takes a screenshot of the page. "screenshot --fullpage" scrolls the whole page for you and takes a picture of it. I was now proposing to offer an --imgur flag to automatically upload the screenshot to imgur using the API but with 400m users we will hit the limits pretty soon. _______________________________________________________________________

So if you have a page that needs to be scrolled to view it all, you can use this tool to make an image of it all without having to take screenshots of portions and then photomerge them all together. Then a developer can store the image on Imgur and have a link to the image to show other developers.

Now I understand what's going on and I think I'll just leave the prefs alone. OTOH, since I'm not a developer, deleting their values would have no effect on anything.

Please consider this topic resolved and thanks anyway.

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (2)

FredMcD
FredMcD
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Are those add-ons still installed? Some place their data in the about:config

JohnCorliss
JohnCorliss Question owner
more options

Chosen Solution

After reading this bug:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=992386

I found this:

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/imgur/AJcTXtiOMPk

In the second link, Christian Heilmann described how the two prefs are used in the devtools: _______________________________________________________________________ The story is this: Firefox Developer tools have a great feature that when you press shift-F2 you get a command line to do all kind of things with the browser. One of them is "screenshot" which takes a screenshot of the page. "screenshot --fullpage" scrolls the whole page for you and takes a picture of it. I was now proposing to offer an --imgur flag to automatically upload the screenshot to imgur using the API but with 400m users we will hit the limits pretty soon. _______________________________________________________________________

So if you have a page that needs to be scrolled to view it all, you can use this tool to make an image of it all without having to take screenshots of portions and then photomerge them all together. Then a developer can store the image on Imgur and have a link to the image to show other developers.

Now I understand what's going on and I think I'll just leave the prefs alone. OTOH, since I'm not a developer, deleting their values would have no effect on anything.

Please consider this topic resolved and thanks anyway.