Sneaky outbounds + inbounds !

That's what i call them anyway.

I'm referring to Apps like Adblock Plus which Silently auto update, WITHOUT asking for permission first



You can see it updated itself, but i got NO indication it wanted to, or did so. Only by opening the above Add-Ons tab do i see what happened.

As far as i can see, the options don't give ANY way of configuring it to Prompt/Allow etc ! Is there any way of doing this ?



I'm in the process of possibly installing a different FW, & one of the reasons is to hopefully be able to control/monitor such events as well.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=347914

 

@cloneranger.
You can turn automatic updates off within the extentions section of firefox.
Thanks.

 

@ AMIGA500

Hi, isn't that Only for FF updates though ? I do have it disabled !

 

Firefox-options-extensions-adblock-options.It gives an option to turn them off there.
Thanks.

 

Try this.

 

@ AMIGA500

My Firefox-options-extensions are already set like this



Thanks for your screenie & i just tried to install the latest version to set as you showed, but my version of FF isn't compatable with it ! I don't want to change it, as other Add-Ons i have aren't compatable with later versions of FF. Catch 22

Anyway i'm hoping others will chime in with ideas/suggestions too

 

@cloneranger.

Sorry i could not help you.
Hope your problem gets solved.

Regards.

 

@ AMIGA500

Thanks for trying

 

Are you using some type of HIPS component with your Firewall?

 

It updates using the browser, so it's going to be hard unless you block the IP range it uses to update, or you create a rule that alerts you when your browser attempts to connect to remote TCP 443, 88.198.0.0 - 88.198.15.255.

 

Regardless of the web browser, I believe there should be an option to automatically check for extensions updates, but decide whether or not to install them right away.

Firefox has an option to, at least disable updates, while Chromium* does not (AFAIK ), which is why I set the downloads folder to a folder where Chromium's process has no access to. This prevents the automatic update of the extensions.

* It temporarily downloads the extension file to your default downloads folder.

 

You can use a command line option for Chromium to set the extension update interval to 0 iirc.

 

I've never had an add-on silently update in Firefox. Perhaps, it's because I use Add-on Update Checker or because of my options settings (taken from v17.0.6esr)?

 

CloneRanger, you can disable auto updating for ALL addons in:

Tools>Addons>Tools for all addons and unselect "Update addons automatically" or click on "Reset all addons to update Manually".

Bo

 

CR, take a look.



Bo

 

Yes, it's --extensions-update-frequency. I suppose I never paid much attention to it.

Buy, does 0 actually work? I ask because, other flags such as --disk-cache-size and --media-cache-size don't allow 0; the minimal value is 1.

 

I'm using FF v3.6.14

*

No

That's what i thought.

With ZA v.5.5.062.000 i don't "think" it's possible ? That's one of the reasons i'm considering another one.

Thanks for the info

See my Post # 6

@ 0strodamus

Thanks for the link I'm hoping i might be able to do it manually via about:config ?

On the www it says ( this add-on sets "extensions.update.autoUpdateDefault" to false stopping built in updates )

I have these



Noticed that extensions.update.notifyUser was FALSE so i've changed it to TRUE. Hope that's wise ?

extensions.update.interval is 86400 What should i change it to for Zero polling ?

How do i include "extensions.update.autoUpdateDefault" manually into about:config ?

@ bo elam

Thanks but due, i "think" to the version i have, i only see this



So i don't think i can do that ?

*

Nice to see members trying to help

 

I believe thats the one you need. Mine is set to false. Type is boolean.

Scroll down to "Adding a preference"

http://mozilla.gunnars.net/mozilla_howto_aboutconfig.html

Bo

 

Are you referring to the extension being updated or the filter list used by the extension. If the former, the options highlighted by the others should cover the matter. If the latter, AdBlock Plus, just like every other extension, has it's own preferences.

The following may be of interest you your situation:

extensions.adblockplus.subscriptions_autoupdate
extensions.adblockplus.patternsbackupinterval

For the complete list:

Adblock Plus preferences

 

If you'r elooking for a new firewall for outbound I'd recommend one. There exist very simple Windows APIs (createremotethread() and loadlibraryex()) that would allow simple bypasses of outbound firewalls. That's why most outbound firewalls contain hips components at this point. It's like... 3 lines of code to bypass them otherwise.

Just a thought. If you're doing it for privacy reasons it's less relevant.

 

@ bo elam

Thanks

Yes

:

Indeed, Thanks

@ Hungry Man

I like to monitor both inbound & outbound. I have Hips etc provided by other Apps.

*

Inspite of the about:config changes i made ABP still shows "Ads were yesterday" ? Whether they were or not ? Is there a way to discover the date ?

 

What exactly are you referring to? The 'Ads were yesterday' is just a tag line for the product, it doesn't mean anything...

 

I thought it meant it had updated the Ad list yesterday As nobody else picked up on it, i guess they did too ?

Thanks for the info

So, how to discover the date of the last update ?

 

Check 'Filter Preferences' from the AdBlock toolbar icon, it tells you the last download date and time.

 

Some people would probably complain if it wouldn't auto-update, and some do because it does.

As with a lot of stuff these days, it's very hard (impossible) to please everyone