Re: Malicious Mozilla/Firefox/Thunderbird/Etc Extension

[Steve Friedl <steve () unixwiz net>]

On Mon, Jul 14, 2008 at 01:55:12PM +0300, Andrei Hanganu wrote:
> I have recently started work on a xpcom component for Firefox,
> astonished i was by the fact that in an XPI archive file one can
> include binary libraries (dll/so files) that get auto loaded in
> firefox via a precise function prototype. The problem is that the code
> in that component is allowed to do anything the user that runs firefox
> has credentials to do.

I don't know if there have been any prior reports of malicious Firefox
components, but I was very surprised to find that one cannot tell whether
a Firefox addon is code-bearing or not, and that Firefox has weaker
management facilities for things like this than IE/ActiveX.

I wrote about this in a Tech Tip some time ago:

        Comparing Security Implications of IE and Firefox add-ons
        http://www.unixwiz.net/techtips/browser-addins.html

> Wham i am curious is if there have ever been reported malicious
> mozilla extensions, and if besides the signing of the addon is there
> any other way to protect from such addons.

I don't think this is something that a user can do anything about.

Steve

-- 
Stephen J Friedl | Security Consultant |  UNIX Wizard  |   +1 714 544-6561
www.unixwiz.net  | Tustin, Calif. USA  | Microsoft MVP | steve () unixwiz net

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