This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

firewall keeps asking about running plugin container when Firefox CLOSES

more options

Recently updated to 52.5.3 ESR (yes I know is oldish)

When I CLOSE Firefox, my firewall brings up the message "Plugin container for Firefox is trying to launch C:\xxxxx\FlashPlayerPlugin_27_0_0_187.exe, or, use another program to gain access to priviledged resources"

Now I understand plugin container, but can not find why it is trying to RUN flash player when it CLOSES.

I have set the firewall to "deny" this action and remember the setting (Zone alarm) but everytime I close Firefox (which clears all history and caches) the alarm repeats.

Can anyone explain 1)why this wants to load at close and 2)how can I stop it!

Thanks

Recently updated to 52.5.3 ESR (yes I know is oldish) When I CLOSE Firefox, my firewall brings up the message "Plugin container for Firefox is trying to launch C:\xxxxx\FlashPlayerPlugin_27_0_0_187.exe, or, use another program to gain access to priviledged resources" Now I understand plugin container, but can not find why it is trying to RUN flash player when it CLOSES. I have set the firewall to "deny" this action and remember the setting (Zone alarm) but everytime I close Firefox (which clears all history and caches) the alarm repeats. Can anyone explain 1)why this wants to load at close and 2)how can I stop it! Thanks

All Replies (2)

more options

I'm pretty sure Plugin Container won't fire up to run Flash if something isn't trying to start a Flash application (SWF).

I was going to guess that you had an add-on for cleaning Flash "supercookies" (Flash Local Storage Objects or LSOs) at shutdown, like the old BetterPrivacy extension. But when I look at your extensions list, I don't recognize any of them as having that feature. So... I don't know why Flash is starting.

Or, maybe, I wonder if Firefox itself might do that if you set it to clear cookies at shutdown? When I search for related threads, there were some complaints years ago about losing some Flash game data when Firefox is set to clear all cookies at shutdown. Hmm...

more options

Here's an old thread I had forgotten about where we experimented with Firefox clearing Flash cookies at shutdown in Firefox 16: Why aren't Flash cookies cleared the first time I exit Firefox?

So... an alternate way to handle clearing cookies at shutdown is this combination of settings:

  • Firefox will: Use custom settings for history
  • [x] Accept cookies from websites
  • Keep until I close Firefox
  • Any sites you want allowed to set persistent cookies, you can use the Exceptions dialog, but I suspect there aren't any
  • [x] Clear history when Firefox closes
    • in "Settings" uncheck Cookies so they just expire naturally