Is the existence of a back door method of updating Firefox preferences something that will be disclosed to users? What about a UI knob to disable it?
It will even be documented for them: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Normandy/PreferenceRollout
> What about a UI knob to disable it?
app.normandy.enabled
Options -> Privacy & Security > Allow Firefox to install and run studies
They're using the studies system to push this hotfix faster for those that have it enabled.Edit: Source:
See: https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/certificate-issue-causing-ad...
> In order to be able to provide this fix on short notice, we are using the Studies system. You can check if you have studies enabled by going to Firefox Preferences -> Privacy & Security -> Allow Firefox to install and run studies.
Normandy seems to be the internal name for this system: https://github.com/mozilla/normandy
Where are you getting this from? AFAIK all Mozilla code / prefs they can push should be signed -- this very issue seems to stem from the cert used to sign AMO extensions expired.