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
I guess "easier" isn't the word really, because Chrome can't really ever be locked down. It's pretty much always, effectively, an open book to Google.
You can lock down everything in Firefox. The drawback being, of course, times like this, when you can't get the fix unless you leave Normandy enabled. (Which I didn't.)
>:-(
Grrrr.