An Essay About Firefox

1437 Words3 Pages

Firefox is a free and open-source web browser developed for Windows, OS X, and Linux, with a mobile version for Android, by the Mozilla Foundation. [1]

It is the second most used web browser according to w3schools. [2]

Figure 1.1 Browser Usage Statistics in Jan/Feb 2014

One thing which makes Firefox popular is its ever increasing massive collection of add-ons.

Add-ons are small pieces of software that add new features or functionality to Firefox. Add-ons can augment Firefox with new features, foreign language dictionaries, or change its visual appearance. [3]
Using add-ons, you can fully customize your browser to cater to your needs.
There are several kinds of add-ons that customize Firefox in different ways:
 Extensions add new features to Firefox or modify existing functionality. There are extensions that allow you to block advertisements, download videos from websites, integrate more closely with social websites, and add features you see in other applications.
 Complete Themes change the entire appearance of Firefox, usually including icons, colors, dialogs, and other visual styles.
 Themes are lightweight themes that use background images to customize your Firefox toolbars.
 Search Providers add additional choices to the search box dropdown. These providers allow you to quickly search any website.
 Dictionaries & Language Packs add support for additional languages to Firefox.
 Plugins help Firefox display or understand different types of media, such as Adobe Flash or Apple QuickTime. [3]

Though add-on enhance quality of the browser, they come with their own vulnerabilities which can and actually have been exploited. Vulnerabilities in add-ons can be exploited by attackers. Even some well written extensions can be...

... middle of paper ...

...tings in about:config

4.4 Prevention against Password Stealer

Do not run Firefox from a root privileged account if you are running Linux. Because then, passwd and shadow files won’t be accessible via the local user.

Chapter 5

Conclusion

In this report, Add-on security in firefox was analyzed by practical implementation of addons in javascript and XUL. These addons were successfully able to bypass firefox’s security mechanisms.
Then some prevention techniques and safe practices were discusses which would help normal layman users to counter these threats to a good extent.
I hope that Firefox will come up with more security features, especially sandboxing, because now all its rival browsers like chrome and IE have it. Till then, be careful abut what you install on your browser.

References

[3] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/faq

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