Mozilla bans malicious add-ons for Firefox with 500,000 installs

Earlier this week, the Mozilla Security Blog announced that after the Firefox team discovered malicious behavior, it has decided to block certain abused add-ons (Add-ons). Two specific components were mentioned in the article, but Mozilla did not elaborate on what they did. What is certain, however, is that approximately 455,000 users have been potentially affected.

In June, it was discovered that certain extensions abused the proxy API of the Firefox browser. Mozilla claims that malicious add-ons prevented nearly a million users from downloading updates, obtaining blocklists, and refreshing remote configuration content.

As part of the remedial measures, Mozilla not only prevented more Firefox from obtaining these additional package prices but also suspended the approval of new extensions that use the proxy API. Starting from version 91.1, Firefox also began to make important requests (such as downloading updates) through direct connections when the proxy connection failed.

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In addition, Mozilla released a system plug-in called Proxy Failover to further alleviate this problem. In the instructions for removing malicious pricing components, Firefox mentioned the two names Bypass and Bypass XM. Although Mozilla did not elaborate on the role of these two extensions, the Malwarebytes Labs security blog disclosed that the creators claimed that these add-ons were designed to bypass paywall restrictions on certain websites.

Finally, if Firefox users try to check and see if the above malicious add-ons are installed on their browsers, please click the Menu button and then jump to Help -> More for troubleshooting information. Then scroll down to Additional Package Price, search for the names of Bypass or Bypass XM in this section-the corresponding IDs are {7c3a8b88-4dc9-4487-b7f9-736b5f38b957} and {d61552ef-e2a6- 4fb5-bf67-8990f7}1490f7}.

If you find them in the list, please disable or delete them as soon as possible through the Extensions and themes (Ctrl + Shift + A key combination) page in the Firefox menu.

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