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How do I override the temporary download location?

  • 1 reply
  • 1 has this problem
  • 29 views
  • Last reply by cor-el

soilandreyes
soilandreyes
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With Firefox 37.0 on Ubuntu 14.10 (and the built-in 36.0.something), if I download anything that has an associated application, like a ZIP file, and click "Open in Archiver" (or any other application), the downloaded file is stored in /tmp rather than in the configured Download directory.

I have an encrypted home directory, but this behaviour from Firefox means that temporary downloads are stored in the unencrypted /tmp which filenames are also browseable by other users on the computer.

I consider this a security breach, (Downloads that are opened like this may be Word documents with private information), so how can I reconfigure Firefox to always save all downloads to ~/Downloads rather than /tmp?

(Yes, I know I can use tmpfs and encrypted swap)

With Firefox 37.0 on Ubuntu 14.10 (and the built-in 36.0.something), if I download anything that has an associated application, like a ZIP file, and click "Open in Archiver" (or any other application), the downloaded file is stored in /tmp rather than in the configured Download directory. I have an encrypted home directory, but this behaviour from Firefox means that temporary downloads are stored in the unencrypted /tmp which filenames are also browseable by other users on the computer. I consider this a security breach, (Downloads that are opened like this may be Word documents with private information), so how can I reconfigure Firefox to always save all downloads to ~/Downloads rather than /tmp? (Yes, I know I can use tmpfs and encrypted swap)

All Replies (1)

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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That is how it works if you open a file in an external application. In that case the file is saved to the temp folder. You would have to save the file first and then open the downloaded file to avoid saving the file to the temp folder.