Mozilla has unveiled a new feature known as Quarantined Domains for its Firefox browser. The company said the feature, officially released with the launch of Firefox 115.0 on July 4, will help prevent attacks by malicious actors targeting specific domains.
Quarantined Domains will limit certain extensions from operating on specific websites. In the release notes for Firefox 115.0, Mozilla explained that only some extensions it monitors will be allowed to run on these sites. At the moment, it’s unclear what websites extensions deemed potentially unsafe will be blocked from accessing.
Threat actors can exploit Mozilla’s open ecosystem for add-ons, the company explained in a blog post. According to Mozilla, reviews and user reports “is not always enough” to detect and block all malicious add-ons.
“This feature allows us to prevent attacks by malicious actors targeting specific domains when we have reason to believe there may be malicious add-ons we have not yet discovered,” Mozilla explained.
Users Retain Control Over New Security Feature
Although Firefox’s Quarantined Domains is designed to enhance security, users have full control over the feature. To disable it, users can type “about:config” in the address bar and change “extensions.quarantinedDomains.enabled” to false.
Mozilla will continue to refine this feature, with plans to give users more control over each add-on’s behavior in Firefox version 116. “We will further be improving the UI for users in future releases,” Mozilla said.
Users will see a warning message in the Extensions popup when Firefox’s Quarantined Domains blocks an extension from running on a site they’re browsing.
Meanwhile, Jeff Johnson, developer of the privacy-focused StopTheMadness extension, has criticized the design of Mozilla’s new feature.
“It turns out that when you pin an extension to the toolbar, it no longer appears in the Extensions popup! Consequently, the quarantined domains warning no longer appears in the Extensions popup either. In fact, there’s no longer an Extensions popup: clicking the Extensions toolbar icon simply opens the about:addons page, which doesn’t show the quarantined domains warning anywhere,” Johnson said in a blog post.
He also criticized Mozilla’s lack of transparency and accountability, as they have yet to provide any clear criteria or explanation for why some extensions are quarantined and others are not. According to Johnson, this could lead to arbitrary and unfair decisions that harm developers and users. He urged Mozilla to reconsider its approach and to respect the user’s right to know and control what extensions they use.
Browsing the Web Safely
In addition to introducing Quarantined Domains, Firefox version 115 will be the last Mozilla browser to support Microsoft Windows 7 and 8, and Apple macOS 10.12, 10.13, and 10.14. Users on these platforms will be migrated to the Extended Support Release (ESR) version of Firefox 155.0 for continued security updates.
We recommend you keep your Firefox browser up-to-date to benefit from the latest security features and improvements.
If you’re interested in improving your browser security, we’ve got you covered. Our team has tested over 50 browser extensions and created a shortlist of the best browser extensions for enhanced privacy and security.
For alternatives to Firefox, check out our list of the top browsers for privacy.
