Firefox usually will check 24 hours after that time. To convert it to a human-readable time, you can use a site like this: https://www.epochconverter.com/
Currently, the expectation is a Mozilla add-on to install the new certificate that would work on Firefox 52-59. It might work on pre-52 as well, but we don’t know yet.
I think it’ll be 52 through 60 inclusive.
For clarity (from a recently added point at Add-ons disabled or failing to install in Firefox | Mozilla Add-ons Blog), with added emphasis:
… For users who cannot update to the latest version of Firefox or Firefox ESR, we plan to distribute an update that automatically applies the fix to versions 52 through 60.
Edge cases that will benefit from an automated fix may include:
This fix will also be available as a user-installable extension. …
Users of Waterfox 56.2.9 may either:
Hi there, folks. We’ve been working on a fix for Firefox v. 52/56. The patch has been written and is currently in testing. Since it’s been quite some time since these versions were supported, it’s been a little bit more complicated – and taken a lot more time – to develop this fix.
A fix has been made for Firefox v. 60. If you are able to, please check for an updated dot release, which should address the issue. If you are at a company where an IT department manages which version you are on, please kindly ask them to deploy the updated version 60.
Thanks for the update, it is greatly appriciated
Thanks,
Firefox ESR 52.0 through Firefox 56.0.2 inclusive, yes? From what I see in Bugzilla, I assume so.
(I’m aware of one case where managed installations of ESR 52.x are probably not the latest e.g. ESR 52.9. I imagine that use cases requiring 53–55 are vanishingly rare.)
In Technical Details on the Recent Firefox Add-on Outage - Mozilla Hacks - the Web developer blog (2019-05-09), Eric Rescorla makes the following observation:
…
- …
- Users of very old builds of Firefox which the Studies system can’t reach.
We can’t really do anything about the last group …
For end users reading that technical post, it may help if Eric or a colleague can clarify (there) which versions of Firefox fell below the Studies threshold.
In the meantime I posted a comment (awaiting moderation) drawing attention to your 52/56 comment above.
Reading https://wiki.mozilla.org/Release_Management/Calendar#Past_branch_dates alongside the December 2016 part of the history at the foot of Firefox/Shield - MozillaWiki, I assume that shield landed (2016-12-21) in Firefox 51.
Via Add-ons disabled or failing to install in Firefox | Mozilla Add-ons Blog (2019-05-04, updated):
– and for anyone who’s curious about Normandy, which is sometimes associated with studies:
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).
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.
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.
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).
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.
To the best of my knowledge:
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…
– for being the first person here to verify the effectiveness of the fix. Anyone else?
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?
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.
still waiting on the offical fix it seems
