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Another post about the add-ons and the expired certificate

  • 4 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 2 views
  • Last reply by Pj

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We are supposed to enable "studies", and wait, or wait? (Like "cake or death" without cakes. (Eddie Izzard.))

This is bonkers. Mozilla should be quiet for some time now. Looking at their blogs ("Dispatches from the Internet frontier") one can see how they post small articles about, say Apple, and how much better Firefox is in some regards etc. (I'm using other operating systems, so it's not about Apple.) Then this. And if one doesn't want to enable studies?

Been using Fx since some of the last beta versions 15 years ago, the web since it was born, and the net, well; Mozilla's Firefox has moved in some directions not desired.

It's now Sunday morning in PDT; how is it going? This morning, in Europe, (May 5, 00:54 EDT) we saw " ... we strongly recommend that you continue to wait. If it’s possible for you to receive the hotfix, you should get it by 6am EDT, 24 hours after it was first released."

And when was that, when was the "studies hotfix" "released"? 4 May ... something? https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2019/05/04/update-regarding-add-ons-in-firefox/

So, to conclude use Studies to get it "on short notice", if not, wait a week or three?

We are supposed to enable "studies", and wait, or wait? (Like "cake or death" without cakes. (Eddie Izzard.)) This is bonkers. Mozilla should be quiet for some time now. Looking at their blogs ("Dispatches from the Internet frontier") one can see how they post small articles about, say Apple, and how much better Firefox is in some regards etc. (I'm using other operating systems, so it's not about Apple.) Then this. And if one doesn't want to enable studies? Been using Fx since some of the last beta versions 15 years ago, the web since it was born, and the net, well; Mozilla's Firefox has moved in some directions not desired. It's now Sunday morning in PDT; how is it going? This morning, in Europe, (May 5, 00:54 EDT) we saw " ... we strongly recommend that you continue to wait. If it’s possible for you to receive the hotfix, you should get it by 6am EDT, 24 hours after it was first released." And when was that, when was the "studies hotfix" "released"? 4 May ... something? https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2019/05/04/update-regarding-add-ons-in-firefox/ So, to conclude use Studies to get it "on short notice", if not, wait a week or three?

All Replies (4)

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Hi atria, when studies are enabled, Firefox checks for new studies every six hours. If you have been waiting more than six hours, there may be some other privacy setting blocking that.

Unfortunately, that is the only officially supported solution as of this moment. A "Firefox 66.0.4" update is expected later today after testing is completed.


If your patience has run out, or you run a different version of Firefox, you could consider two other measures:

The study downloads a hotfix extension, and the hotfix extension installs a new certificate. So your options are:

(1) Download the hotfix extension directly and see whether it works (not officially supported; does not work in Firefox 52 ESR)

I know this URL looks totally strange, but this is the one I have:

https://storage.googleapis.com/moz-fx-normandy-prod-addons/extensions/hotfix-update-xpi-intermediate%40mozilla.com-1.0.2-signed.xpi

("Normandy" is the system for managing studies.)

When installing from random sites, Firefox will tell you the site does not have permission to install and present the "Allow" "Dont' Allow" drop-down panel. You would need to click "Allow" to proceed to the next step.

(2) Install the certificate directly and then manually trigger re-verification (not officially supported)

I've posted detailed steps for Firefox 52 ESR users. The screens are a bit different in Firefox 56+, but you would use the same technique. See: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/1258165#answer-1218833

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Thank you for your reply, jscher2000, and detailed steps in the other threads.

I understand, and agree, about officially supported solutions.

Again, thanks for your reply,

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jscher2000 said

(1) Download the hotfix extension directly and see whether it works (not officially supported; does not work in Firefox 52 ESR) I know this URL looks totally strange, but this is the one I have: https://storage.googleapis.com/moz-fx-normandy-prod-addons/extensions/hotfix-update-xpi-intermediate%40mozilla.com-1.0.2-signed.xpi ("Normandy" is the system for managing studies.) When installing from random sites, Firefox will tell you the site does not have permission to install and present the "Allow" "Dont' Allow" drop-down panel. You would need to click "Allow" to proceed to the next step.

I think works because the certificate for that server is still valid. I know it worked for me a few hours ago, but a few users who I posted that URL to evidently didn't Allow that domain or ignored that "hanger message".

With a 2nd Profile I was about to use Save Link As... and then drag that XPI file into Firefox to effect an installation (old time way of installing an extension that is saved to local disk.

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atria said

There was a Bug-A-Boo with a Certificate Expiration Date dealing with the Add-ons. There's a new FF Version with the main Fix, 66.0.4.

Mozilla Blog Post Update:
A Firefox release has been pushed — version 66.0.4 on Desktop and Android, and version 60.6.2 for ESR. This release repairs the certificate chain to re-enable web extensions, themes, search engines, and language packs that had been disabled (Bug 1549061).
There are remaining issues that we are actively working to resolve, but we wanted to get this fix out before Monday to lessen the impact of disabled add-ons before the start of the week. More information about the remaining issues can be found by clicking on the links to the release notes above.
(May 5, 16:25 EDT)


~Pj