Mozilla's Banning all Remote Code Execution Plugins in Firefox 72

According to recent reports, Mozilla has banned all remote code execution plugins in Firefox 72.

Although the Bugzilla listing mainly shows the extension ID, the ban seems to have affected several translation add-ons on the browser. This is especially true for plugins that inject codes from Bing Translate or Google Translate into the website to provide other language options.

Two translation add-on developers, Google Translate this Page and Page Translator, confirmed that Mozilla banned their extension. Also, other affected extensions include Bridge Translate and Babelfox.

The Blocked Add-ons message reads:

“These add-ons violate Mozilla’s policies by executing remote code. The problematic add-on plugin will be automatically disabled and no longer usable.”

Mozilla’s Ban on Remote Code Execution Plugins

For a while now, Mozilla has disallowed the execution of external remote code for listed extensions. That means developers that have their add-ons on AMO were not allowed to execute remote code.

Self-hosted and read unlisted extensions, on the other hand, had no such restriction. The policy change prompted developers to pull their extensions from the AMO, and offered them as unlisted add-ons to users.

However, Mozilla still put the extensions on the Bugzilla list. Expectedly, the blacklisting automatically killed the add-on in Firefox installation with the feature on.

It turns out that Mozilla doesn’t want extensions to execute remote codes anymore because of its potential threat to security and privacy.

“We take our security policies very seriously and apply them to all add-ons, whether hosted on AMO or not,” the company’s policy reads. “We expect all add-ons to be secure and well-maintained in handling both their data and their user’s data.”

Since the extension developers seem caught off-guard, Mozilla may not have communicated the policy change before the ban.

What This Means For Firefox Users

You won’t have access to some of your favorite browser extensions. That means on-page translation of an entire page is no longer possible on Firefox, a feature that Chrome and Edge support natively.

Meanwhile, several other add-ons on the browser still offer translation functionality. Also, you could install user scripts in the browser to provide the language translation feature.