(FIXED) what is the certificate problem and fix for 49.0.2?

[karenanne]

I would appreciate an explanation of the certificate problem. If a certificate expiring caused the addons problem, why cannot the certificate simply be renewed and that magically fix all versions of firefox?

Also, is there a fix for 49.0.2 which I am using for a variety of reasons? Currently I restore Application Data/Mozilla from backup each morning so that classic theme restorer works and often use chrome so as to not see the wretched default interface to firefox. I would prefer not to waste 5-10 minutes a day doing this and use firefox all the time.

[Brummelchen]

cert validates the extensions, wrong or missing cert could mean malware.
if you cant apply the hotfix or the workarounds, then you dont have luck now and in the future.

then it may be better you stay on your (outdated) safari browser.

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/49.0.2623.75 Safari/537.36

[BuddhaNature]

I would appreciate an explanation of the certificate problem.

Extended explanation of this straight from Mozilla: Technical Details on the Recent Firefox Add-on Outage

Also, is there a fix for 49.0.2 which I am using for a variety of reasons?

There is no official fix for 49.x, nor is there going to be (see the section titled Final Steps in the document pointed to above). Basically, if you want an easy way out you need to update to the most recent version of Firefox and/or Firefox ESR.

However, looks like you're on WinXP and you won't even be able to install recent Firefox versions on that. As best as I know Firefox support for WinXP got dropped as of version 53.0

There are some folks using WinXP and pretty old versions of Firefox posting in here (different forum). Some managed a fix, some not. Might be worth your while reading. Firefox glitch breaks browser add ons

[kerft]

There is an XPI that says it is for Firefox 52 though 60 at dickvl's link in the 14th post here http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... &t=3049947
Might work on 49.x but probably not, I guess it couldn't hurt to try it.
For most people who are on Firefox 49, using Firefox 45 ESR and going to URL about:config and setting xpinstall.signatures.required to false would be better.

There are other workarounds at various levels of difficulty. I don't know which work and which don't. One would be to set your system date to one or 2 years ago. Another: https://web.archive.org/web/20180820175 ... refox.html This one has a linked version of the cert, it might be the best: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/quest ... er-1218833
Or some are mentioned on reddit.com/r/firefox/

If you are on XP, mypal and new moon are forks of palemoon that have some patches and are still being released. Firefox 52ESR runs on XP as well. If you are on non-intel Mac there is tenfourfox.

[jscher2000]

I've collected what I know here: https://www.jeffersonscher.com/ffu/armagadd-on_2_0.html

[karenanne]

cert validates the extensions, wrong or missing cert could mean malware.
if you cant apply the hotfix or the workarounds, then you dont have luck now and in the future.

then it may be better you stay on your (outdated) safari browser.

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/49.0.2623.75 Safari/537.36

I'm not running Safari. I am running Firefox or Chrome.

[James]

Chromium, Chrome and Opera dropped support of the old EOL WinXP and Vista back in April 2016.

Firefox 52.9.0esr (Released June 26, 2018) is the last version to still support the old EOL WinXP and Vista.

Mozilla is looking to make a legacy extension of a hotfix from Firefox 52 ESR to 60.0 Release (not the 60 ESR) though why would anyone use the 60 Release instead of the supported 60 ESR I wonder....

Mozilla is not supporting older versions like 49.0.2 with any hotfix.

https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2019/05 ... n-firefox/

[karenanne]

I've collected what I know here: https://www.jeffersonscher.com/ffu/armagadd-on_2_0.html

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! This works.

[therube]

(Are we going to have to do this again in 2025?)

[jscher2000]

(Are we going to have to do this again in 2025?)

Probably 3 years before the date they should start signing with a new certificate. Then in 2025, only the certificates that have not been updated in 3 years will stop working. oh, but, hmm. Yes, we're going to have to do this again in 2025.

[karenanne]

(Are we going to have to do this again in 2025?)

Probably 3 years before the date they should start signing with a new certificate. Then in 2025, only the certificates that have not been updated in 3 years will stop working. oh, but, hmm. Yes, we're going to have to do this again in 2025.

Should the fix (#4) still work for those of us on prehistoric versions then provided we use an appropriate certificate?

(I feel a little better about being prehistoric since I read a thread in another forum where people were using Word 2002

[jscher2000]

(Are we going to have to do this again in 2025?)

Probably 3 years before the date they should start signing with a new certificate. Then in 2025, only the certificates that have not been updated in 3 years will stop working. oh, but, hmm. Yes, we're going to have to do this again in 2025.

Should the fix (#4) still work for those of us on prehistoric versions then provided we use an appropriate certificate?

I assume the same thing will work in the future, if we're allowed to use non-Google browsers at that time.

[dickvl]

The root certificate also expires in 2025, so that would make things worse.
Bug 1549018 - create a transition plan to prepare for the add-on signing root expiring in 2025

[dickvl]

There have been extensions published on the Add-ons website.
See:
https://blog.mozilla.org/addons/2019/05 ... n-firefox/

[therube]

There have been extensions published on the Add-ons website.

Three separate extension (versions).
Latest versions now cover FF 47-56, 57-60, & 61-65.