Submitted by Microsoft is really making it hard not to distrust them, aren’t they? We already talked about Mono and Moonlight this weekend, and now we’re notified of something else. Apparently, the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1, released earlier this year, installs a Firefox extension which could not be uninstalled easily (registry hacking was needed). To make matters worse, this extension came with a pretty big security hole (at least, that’s what everyone says). A newer version of this extension has been pushed out in May, which can be uninstalled the proper way. As it turns out, Firefox apparently has a limitation in that extensions installed at the machine level (instead of the user level) cannot be uninstalled from within the extensions GUI.
The situation was already discovered in February of this year, by Annoyences.org. The extension, called the Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant 1.0, is installed without asking the user for permission, and includes a fairly hefty security flaw also present in Internet Explorer. “This update adds to Firefox one of the most dangerous vulnerabilities present in all versions of Internet Explorer: the ability for websites to easily and quietly install software on your PC,” Annoyances.org writes, “Since this design flaw is one of the reasons you may’ve originally choosen to abandon IE in favor of a safer browser like Firefox, you may wish to remove this extension with all due haste.”
This extension enables support for ClickOnce for Firefox users, a feature that enables .NET applications to be installed with – you guessed it! – one click. I could not find any information on the security hole which would allow silent installs, so if anyone has any information on that, let us know.
Microsoft claims that this was an oft-requested feature, and as such, they wrote an extension for Firefox to support it. However, they made the extension install itself at “machine level” to enable support for all users, and this revealed a limitation in Firefox: extensions installed at that level cannot be uninstalled from within the extensions GUI. I guess Firefox does not have a privilege elevation GUI.
Microsoft has since updated the extension to work on a per-user basis via an update to the Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant 1.0, meaning the extension can now be uninstalled the normal way. If you still have the old version installed, and do not wish to update to the new version just to uninstall the extension, uninstall instructions are here.
It’s great that Microsoft is supporting Firefox users, but it does seem like they still have some learning to do here. I don’t believe there’s anything malicious going on here, but it still would be better to at least ask for the user’s permission, but preferably, to just put the extension on Mozilla’s website.
It seems to be possible to disable the extension instead of removing it. Assuming this disable button actually works.
Well even so, you should be able to remove it totally since why should it be there if you don’t want it in the first place?
As for the title blurb of –“As it turns out, Firefox apparently has a limitation in that extensions installed at the machine level (instead of the user level) cannot be uninstalled from within the extensions GUI.”
Ehh… the way I see it this has to do with file ownership and account privileges. Installing NET requires admin rights and as such any Firefox extensions installed by that NET package will be created by the admin account and thus the resulting files will be owned by the admin and not removeable by Firefox when running under a limited account.
…in which case Firefox should notify you of this, and offer an elevation prompt – which it doesn’t. Hence, a limitation in Firefox.
And thus you enter into the realm of Kaiwai’s argument as to why multi platform applications suck when there is an attempt to try and cater for every platform with no effort to customising each release for each platform – you have the worst of all worlds.
This must be the plugin that got installed when I wanted to try VS2008 Express. While at it, the installer hosed all of my Firefox configuration resetting back to defaults. Not so nice.
Pushing unwanted extensions down FF users throat is great? Nothing malicious?
Not in my book.
I don`t want .NET and most FF users probably feel the same way. MS just wants more FF exploits.
Don’t distort what I say to make it fit your own agenda. Where do I say that pushing Firefox extensions without consent is “great”?
OK, but calling this malware attack “supporting Firefox” is just as bad.
Malware attack?
How is this malicious software?
It’s not Thom who needs to rethink his choice of words, it’s you.
The Linux community considers Microsoft software as malware.
Those little rabid dogs, those Linux users
ok call it software that install without user permission… but as they say.. the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It was not malicious per se but open the door to others.
I installed .NET but would have never agree to that extension (it happens that I saw it this morning – before this news and uninstall it right away)
The real question is, why doesn’t Firefox prevent this kind of behavior? I noticed that AVG was doing the same thing in order to install browser extensions (which slowed web surfing down to a crawl), which is one of the reasons I stopped using it.
The ONLY way you should be able to install extensions is through the browser itself. I’m not excusing the behavior of MS or anybody else who does this, but the fact that programs are able to do it in the first place is a security flaw in Firefox as far as I’m concerned.
How *can* Firefox prevent it? How can Firefox distinguish between an extension installed through the Firefox interface, and an extension installed through something writing the exact same content to disk?
I don’t know? Perhaps it could have a list of installed extensions in a file that was encrypted, so that outside apps couldn’t write to it? Of course, it might get corrupted, but hey… there are smarter people than me to figure these things out
So let me get this straight. An Microsoft installer inserts an unwanted firefox extension which is also a security hole and it’s firefox that should “protect” against it?
Yeah right, why don’t we tell application programmers to “protect” against malware abusing their programs via OS security holes huh?
Seriously Thom? Wtf is this? It’s an obvious move by Microsoft and you’re defending them?
Maybe a bit off-topic, but the .NET-logo you show in the top right corner is the old .NET-logo. Maybe you should replace it with the new .NET-logo that was introduced last year: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/PDC2008NewNETLogo.aspx
Thanks, updated the logo. Shift+refresh your browsers.
I didn’t know why there was that extension listed in Firefox. I use Firefox to test web sites and to use Firebug. I’m glad I don’t have that problem in Opera, my default browser.
As I read the Act, this is a clear violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act–
yet another major violation (recalling Sony).
Someone should be doing jail time. This should not be just swept under
the rug as “corporations will be corporations.”
DISCLAIMER: I am a 56-year-old Ph.D. software systems architect.
My experience has led me to have strong opinions.
Why would anyone request such a feature?
I haven’t a clue about what it does and disabled it.
Features I could request are maybe a silverlight plugin and linux drivers for an microsoft webcam.
.net developers wanted this feature so they could deploy their .net applications more conveniently.
I agree that it is admirable to see Microsoft recognising another major player in the browser market. A feature like this can be quite useful for deploying .Net software easily in much the same way as Java Web Start. It’s unfortunate that the initial deployment was flawed, but at least this has been rectified now.
By the way—
Is it too much to ask to do some research first before submitting your stories? You shouldn’t make claims like this and expect people to do the work to back up your statements for you.
..people have no idea what ClickOnce is.
http://www.ddj.com/security/196801171
ClickOnce deployment is designed from the ground up to be a limited user deployment mechanism, and it has various security features in place to ensure a trustworthy deployment.
While I think that installing the Add-On at the system level instead of the user level is a bad idea (That has since been addressed), the practice of shipping and installing extensions without consent is not one limited solely to Microsoft.
Firefox stores extensions in a user folder, a malicious user could do way more harm than simply installing a few extensions, if they wanted to.
By the way, Google Chrome uses Click Once to install on Windows (at least when downloaded with IE). The installation is very smooth and auto-updates work in the background.
The Firefox add-on just tries to make it as smooth for Firefox-users, too.
I agree that the .NET 3.5 SP1 -setup should have asked about installing the add-on, though.
That is all
right, so I might eat the all-users installation required. However it also changes the UserAgent to spam all the .net platforms installed for each request. There is absolutely NO reason to do this.
Next they’ll be sending along your version of office and whatever they feel they need to send along
Microsoft ARE abusing their rights when installing .net 3.5 – so dont.
It is not unusual to have software that is impossible (or partly possible) to uninstall on Windows. Windows users should have got used to it by now.
After installing Microsoft Office, Outlook Express, NET framework itself, for example, the system is hardly possible or impossible to revert to previous state. You’ve got those, so called, “components” embedded, and can’t get rid of them without reinstalling the whole system.