Firefox Hacks

This book provides tips and tools for customizing

Firefox's deployment, appearance, features, and

functionality. The chapter excerpted here describes

how to change the security defaults in Firefox.

Posted with permission of O'Reilly. Click here

for a detailed description and to learn how

to purchase this title.

Chapter 2: Security

Hacks 11-21


This chapter describes how to change the default security
arrangements in Firefox. Security is a big subject, and it has plenty
of baggage all of its own. One person's safety is
another's prison. One person's
privacy is another person's isolation. Changing
security options amounts to changing who you are or
aren't willing to deal with. It also amounts to
deciding how much you're willing to let third
parties know when you're browsing the Web.

When you install Firefox, the default
security settings give you a safe web
browser. It is quite hard to create large holes by accidentally
changing options. Firefox has also been closely inspected for
internal problems. As a result, the browser and its underlying
Mozilla technology have an excellent security track record. Rarely is
a new security problem uncovered. When that happens, it is usually
fixed within a day. The Firefox Update Manager informs you of new
security patches, if any are made available.

If you don't care about security at all, you can
simply remove many of the hurdles that Firefox puts in your way.
Security is a complex matter, though. Sometimes, doing away with
security means just that: leaving the browser's
resources open to any exploitation. Some security regimes, however,
don't give you that option. In such cases, the best
you can do is reply "I don't
care" every time you're engaged
over security. There are even rare cases in which
there's nothing at all that you can do to escape
security limitations. It's a case-by-case
environment.

Security concerns and installation processes are two related but
different things. This chapter discusses security only. Chapter 3 describes gritty modifications to the
Firefox install process. Chapter 7 and
Chapter 8 describe a form of programming
that's also a blend of installation and security.
See those chapters to go further with the chrome.

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