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Why does Firefox includes a entry for screenshots.firefox.com in my hosts file?

  • 4 replies
  • 3 have this problem
  • 1 view
  • Last reply by effenberg

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I opened the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts and found a entry to screenshots.firefox.com:

127.0.0.1 screenshots.firefox.com

I tried to both remove and disable it (commenting with #) but it is always included again.

It seems weird to me anything that is included in this file related to my localhost. There is any particular reason why this entry can't be removed from this file?

I opened the C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts and found a entry to screenshots.firefox.com: 127.0.0.1 screenshots.firefox.com I tried to both remove and disable it (commenting with #) but it is always included again. It seems weird to me anything that is included in this file related to my localhost. There is any particular reason why this entry can't be removed from this file?

Chosen solution

hi, firefox doesn't write stuff into the hosts file. do you use any third-party privacy related software on your system that might be responsible for that (promising to block access to the firefox screenshots tool)?

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Chosen Solution

hi, firefox doesn't write stuff into the hosts file. do you use any third-party privacy related software on your system that might be responsible for that (promising to block access to the firefox screenshots tool)?

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philipp said

hi, firefox doesn't write stuff into the hosts file. do you use any third-party privacy related software on your system that might be responsible for that (promising to block access to the firefox screenshots tool)?

Thank you for response.

Not that I'm aware of. And if my PC has this kind of software, it is not blocking the access, because I can still open the page by entering it on the browser.

I do have some monitoring softwares installed due to being a company workstation, which has some security policies. My company don't make this rules public so I can't confirm if this is the case.

Since Firefox isn't responsible for this behavior, I can mark this thread as solved. If you need more information to track this issue for security concerns, please let me know.

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was this the only entry in your hosts file? if it's in a corporate environment, perhaps it's also a policy that your it department is trying to enforce...

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philipp said

was this the only entry in your hosts file? if it's in a corporate environment, perhaps it's also a policy that your it department is trying to enforce...

No, it's not the only entry. I have personally included some entries as part of my job as developer.

I have opened a ticket to my company IT department to verify this issue. Thank you for identifying that this is not Firefox behavior!