Firefox 41+ extension signing

In the never-ending quest for browser security, Firefox has started implementing safeguards to only allow signed extensions. I found this out after upgrading to Firefox 41 as my installed version of “Deque FireEyes” stopped working. Thankfully, there is a workaround in Firefox 41, but it goes away in Firefox 42.

  • Firefox 40: warning only!
  • Firefox 41: workaround, via:

    about:config:
    xpinstall.signatures.required = false
  • Firefox 42: BLOCKED! unless signed

REFERENCES:

Deque FireEyes accessibility testing plugin

I’ve done a lot of accessibility testing and development work over my career. One of the many free tools that I use in that role is FireEyes. Deque also has some commercial packages for developer use.

FireEyes adds a new tab on the Firebug tab bar and adds the ability to analyze a web site for WCAG 2.0 Level A and AA and Section 508 accessibility violations. The Stand-Alone version of FireEyes is a browser plugin to the FireFox browser. It requires that the FireBug plugin already be installed

Requirements:

  • Firefox 31-41

    As of 2015aug21, the current version of the extension is NOT signed and will not execute on later versions. [See my later post on this topic]

  • FireBug 2.x – Do NOT install Firebug v3 alpha as the tab will not show.

NOTE: should be on Firebug tab labeled “Worldspace Fireyes”, but does not seem to be available in Firebug3.

NOTE: if you try to download in MSIE, you must rename the .zip to .xpi, and then open with Firefox.

REFERENCES: