Mozilla developer Asa Dotzler is angry and who could blame him, some unscrupulous Firefox plugin developers have been installing plugins without user permission a practice he likens to “trojan horses.”
While it’s easy to picture developers in an unscrupulous back room hacking away at code to install backdoor plug-ins, some users may be shocked to learn that even big firms are in on the action, including Microsoft , Apple and Google among others.
Dotzler goes on to describe the plug-in attacks as “sneaky, underhanded, and wrong.”
As examples he points to the Apple iTunes Applications Detector plug-in, Microsoft’s Windows Live Photo Gallery and Office Live plug-ins. Also on the list, Google’s Update and Earth plug-ins.
It should be noted that the programs do not appear to have any malicious focus:
“I downloaded and installed a specific application from these vendors intending to have only that application installed, and without my consent that application foisted additional software on me,” Dotzler stated. “If you want to add software to my system, ask me.”
It should be interesting to see how Firefox will address the issue of security on their system, perhaps requiring some sort of notification to be present when software tries to install itself within their web browser. [via Electronista]
