Make your Extensions More Secure in FireFox

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_CyberGhosT_

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How-to get Firefox to check for extension updates more often
You may want to configure your browser to check for extension updates more often than once per day if you’re using security-critical browser extensions like the popular LastPass password manager.


This week, three vulnerabilities were discovered and quickly fixed in various versions of the LastPass extension that allowed an attacking website to execute arbitrary code or steal a complete copy of the user’s password keychain. This really highlights how important it is to keep your browser extensions up to date with the latest security patches.

Google Chrome checks for updates every five hours by default, which seems like a reasonable default. On the other hand, Firefox only checks for updates once per day. When I checked on six systems where I have LastPass installed in Firefox, only one of the systems had received and install the updated LastPass extension which had been released some nine hours earlier. That is an unacceptable long time window to leave such critical issues unpatched.

Firefox allows its users great control over most functionality, including the auto-update system for extensions and add-ons. The following steps will show you how to increase the update frequency from once to six times per day:

  1. Type in about:config in Firefox’s address field, and press Enter.
  2. Accept the warning, and search for “extensions.update.interval” in the list of options.
  3. Double-click on the entry and change the value from “86400” (24 hours in seconds) to “14400” (4 hours in seconds).
The new setting won’t come in effect until after Firefox next checks for updates (up to 24 hours). You can force it to take effect immediately by going to the extensions manager in Firefox, clicking the settings/gear icon, and then click on Check for updates.
Read More / Source: How-to get Firefox to check for extension updates more often – Ctrl blog
 
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