Firefox releases hotfix to fix add-ons issue

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Mozilla forgot to update the security certificate used to sign the Firefox plugin when the certificate expires, the new plugin download fails and prevents the existing plugin from working properly. Mozilla is now announcing that they have released a fix and said:

Our team has identified and rolled-out a fix for all Firefox Desktop users on Release, Beta and Nightly. The fix will be automatically applied in the background within the next few hours. No active steps need to be taken to make add-ons work again. In particular, please do not delete and/or re-install any add-ons as an attempt to fix the issue. Deleting an add-on removes any data associated with it, where disabling and re-enabling does not.

To provide this fix on short notice, we are using the Studies system. This system is enabled by default, and no action is needed unless Studies have been disabled. Firefox users can check if they have Studies enabled by going to:

  • Firefox Options/Preferences -> Privacy & Security -> Allow Firefox to install and run studies (scroll down to find the setting)
Once the add-on is re-enabled, you can disable Studies again. The fix is ​​being rolled out. To check if you have a fix, type “about:studies” in the location bar. If the fix is ​​active, you will see “hotfix-update-xpi-signing-intermediate-bug-1548973” or “hotfix-reset-xpi-verification-timestamp-1548973“.

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