Thread: Add-ons not working due to certificate expiration - FireFox ESR 52.9.0 (32-bit) and older

Can anyone update on current status of the 52-59 fix? ETA, and will it just be applied without us doing anything, suddenly add-ons will work again? Thanks.

Update: it’s still being worked on. There’s no further news, else you would’ve seen news in this forum, on the blog, on Twitter etc. There’s to my knowledge no ETA, it’ll be made available whenever it’s ready and possibly try to apply automatically (but that could also depend on your settings).

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If by settings you mean set to auto-update in the background, it would seem nobody in the 52-59 group will have settings set that way, or else they would no longer be on 52-59 anymore.

Users on Win XP/Vista could. However I think the distribution would be tied to a pref only exposed in about:config, but I’m not sure.

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I have my settings on Auto update, and I am on 52.9.0 (32-bit) because my system CANT new the newer FF soo…yeah

I see your point. For those of us who could but don’t to prevent it, auto-update wouldn’t work, if that’s going to be the method.

I just wish they would post more regular status updates… they ignored even mentioning our situation for several days, and now I’m left wondering if they’re taking the weekend off without finishing our fix, or what. Anything at all would be welcome.

Trying to find a solution to that is part of the hold-up on automatic distribution!!

As a workaround, the extensions are expected to be posted on the Add-ons site or another Mozilla site.

At this point, the extensions are baked but still in QA. If you want to be a volunteer tester, you can go to the following bug, scan down a bit to the Attachments section, and install the extension for your version. Please report back on whether it works or not.

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Thank you. Now I just have to decide if I want to risk being a guinea-pig or wait for the official release.

Installing an official add-on that does the trick from the Mozilla site I think would be welcomed by most of us, even if work continues to be done on figuring how to automate it. Hopefully soon. This has caused cascading issues, and I just don’t get a sense of urgency now, 7 days out (or clear and frequent communication).

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Based on my limited experience with earlier pre-release versions of the extension: I might describe the pre-releases at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1550793#module-attachments-title as almost entirely risk-free.

Hints

To the best of my knowledge:

  • if the Certificate Manager window is open before you add the extension, then the list of certificate authorities (CAs) will not visibly update (to include Mozilla’s CA) until after you close then reopen the window
  • if addition of the extension has the required effect, then you may safely remove the extension; Mozilla’s CA will remain.

Certainly:

I can not imagine a problem with containers, or themes, arising from addition of a Mozilla-provided hot-fix extension. It is, however, the type of risk that might be forgotten whilst over-focusing on something else (imagine: deleting or distrusting the CA whilst aiming to make an issue reproducible) so please, take care.

Back up and restore information in Firefox profiles | Firefox Help

52.9.0 - have applied hotfix 1548973(1550793) - have set xpinstall.signatures.required back to true.
All ok even after restart…

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:+1: :heavy_multiplication_x: :100: @clive.sewart

– for being the first person here to verify the effectiveness of the fix. Anyone else?

A simple way to verify

For users who have not previously disabled verification of add-ons (the xpinstall.signatures.required stuff), this one might be good for before-and-after testing:

If your Firefox is bugged, you’ll probably see this type of red alert:

Immediately after adding the hot-fix (the attachment at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1550793#module-attachments-title), you should find no alert when adding Latest on AMO.

Applied the hotfix to my 54.0.1 (64-bit) version, and it seems to have done the trick!

Maybe not right place to ask, but can anyone tell me for sure whether, now that I got my add-on data recovered, if I finally break down and allow the upgrade path to 56, and then to Quantum and the very latest version, do the upgrades still exist on the Mozilla site to facilitate that? That is, next time it advises me to upgrade to 56, if I say yes, will that succeed? And then the step to Quantum, that will succeed also? Or if, because my current version is “unsupported”, it’s not even supported to upgrade either? I understand many/most add-ons won’t survive the transition, I’m talking just the process itself. And if not, then I guess I’d like to know if I just back up my profile, would the current profile files work seamlessly with the very latest version?

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Yes and Maybe. You definitely should make a profile backup first. https://support.mozilla.org/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles

Firefox will poll for updates and the server will suggest what to install next; I don’t know what the steps between 54 and 66 are likely to be.

When Firefox is leaping over many versions in an update, it may suggest going through a Refresh to shed potentially incompatible old settings (since you may be skipping various little individual migrations along the way). If that happens, your current profile folder should end up on your desktop inside an Old Firefox Data folder.

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still waiting on the offical fix it seems

It’s still in QA. It worked for me, but presumably they do something a bit more rigorous than just asking me. https://www.jeffersonscher.com/ffu/armagadd-on_2_0.html

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If you are using Firefox 52 - 56, you can install this extension to fix the expired security certificate issue and re-enable your extensions and themes: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/disabled-add-on-fix-52-56/

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thank you SO SO MUCH!

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Thank you (all)!

Discussion in Reddit:

Orientation

From https://support.mozilla.org/kb/add-ons-disabled-or-fail-to-install-firefox#w_for-older-versions-of-firefox:

For older versions of Firefox

  • Add-on fix for Firefox versions 52-56. …

We are currently working on fixes for other versions of Firefox. …

Mozilla bug 1551321 - Please fix the certificate problem with Firefox 48.0.2 which is the last to run on Mac 10.6.8 Thanks,

NB from comment 8:

… don’t have the QA bandwidth to test releases earlier than 52 right now so it is at your own risk. …

The current version of the extension to be tested is amongst the attachments at https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1551321#module-attachments-title.

Users of Firefox 53– 58.0.2 might find it impossible to add things such as these, after Mozilla’s fix:

– true?

Can any user of fixed Firefox 53, 54, 55, 56, 57 or 58 confirm the incompatibility?

As far as I can tell, the incompatibility:

  • is unrelated to armagadd-on 20
  • might explain one-star reviews such as the one below.

https://addons.mozilla.org/addon/disabled-add-on-fix-52-56/reviews/1353098/

This update for ver 56 Did not fix the ad-ons problem that showed up on May 3rd “Download failed. Please check your connection.”