Adblock Plus and (a little) more

Why Adblock Plus on download.com isn't being updated · 2010-01-30 01:19 by Wladimir Palant

Dear CNET, so you own download.com? Very easy to remember, nice for you.
No, I am not really interested in publishing my software there, addons.mozilla.org suits my needs much better.
Oh, somebody already uploaded my software and I only need to keep it updated? Ok, I guess this won’t be too much of a problem.
Why did you subscribe me to this newsletter? I didn’t ask for it!

One way to get outdated plugins on your computer · 2010-01-28 15:45 by Wladimir Palant

Only two days ago I wrote how browser plugins are the biggest security risk today. And yesterday I experienced first-hand how one would get outdated and insecure plugins installed. I installed Lexware Steuer 2009 (for the German readers: yes, that’s the one you get at Aldi and that always gets good marks in software tests). And then Secunia PSI went berserk warning me about various security threats on my computer. Turned out, this application installed without even telling me: Java Runtime Environment 1.6.0 Update 2 (released July 2007, current version is 1.6.0 Update 18), Flash Player ActiveX 9.0.124.0 (released April 2008, current version is 10.0.42.34), MSXML 4.0 SP2 (released June 2003, current version is 4.0 SP3).

The new browser security landscape · 2010-01-26 12:22 by Wladimir Palant

Brian Krebs came across one of those websites throwing a battery of exploits at users and took a close look at its administration page. It lists seven exploits, the two most successful ones being for Adobe Reader and Java, followed by two Internet Explorer exploits. At the far end of the list two Firefox exploits can be found as well. From what I understand, only one Adobe Reader vulnerability was unpatched at that time, all other vulnerabilities have been fixed already. For example, the Java exploit targets a security hole that was closed in December 2008, the exploited Firefox vulnerabilities have been closed in Firefox 1.0.5 and 1.5.0.5 respectively.

Adblock Plus 1.1.3 released · 2010-01-07 11:36 by Wladimir Palant

This is a bugfix release with minimal changes.

Changes

Adblock Plus 1.1.2 regression fixed: Filter hits are counted in private browsing mode
Fixed: Subscription dialog comes up on each update in Fennec, regardless of existing subscriptions
Updated compatibility range for Songbird, 1.4.0 to 1.7.0a supported now

Adblock Plus 1.1.3 coming up · 2010-01-05 04:49 by Wladimir Palant

I messed up: private browsing integration no longer works in Adblock Plus 1.1.2, hits will be counted regardless of whether the user is in private browsing mode. This should be fixed in the current development build (1.1.2+.2010010502). I would be grateful if some people could confirm that things are working correctly now — I want to release Adblock Plus 1.1.3 from branch soon with this change only (other changes like subscription UI rework are still scheduled for Adblock Plus 1.2).

Subscription-related user interface parts reworked · 2009-12-27 03:53 by Wladimir Palant

The current development build (Adblock Plus 1.1.2+.2009122702) features many changes to the subscription-related user interface parts (mostly post-install subscription selection and “Add filter subscription” from Adblock Plus preferences):

Less/simpler text
User is immediately presented with the subscription suggestion matching his browser locale, other recommended subscriptions are available in dropdown list.
A warning is shown if the user closes the post-install page without adding a subscription.
Adding a different subscription no longer happens in a separate dialog window.
No longer necessary to go to the webpage for the full list of subscriptions, when you choose to add a different subscription the full list is loaded automatically. A subscription can be selected with one click, subscriptions matching your browser locale are emphasized.
Subscriptions are offered by languages rather than regions now.
Việt Nam List is back as a recommendation.

These changes can be discussed in the corresponding forum topic. Older changes since Adblock Plus 1.1.2 release:

HTML5 audio and video can now be blocked via context menu
Toolbar icon tooltip shows more information (number of filters/subscriptions in use, number of whitelisted items and matching element hiding rules)

More extension signing adventures · 2009-12-21 11:22 by Wladimir Palant

Things got significantly better since the last time I tried to sign Adblock Plus. Firefox 3.5.6 will now show my name instead of “Author not verified” even if the organization field of the certificate is empty (thanks, Boris). And StartCom certificates are accepted by all main applications that Adblock Plus needs to support (meaning Firefox 3.0 starting with 3.0.12, Firefox 3.5/3.6/3.7, SeaMonkey 2.0 and Thunderbird 3.0). So I started signing development builds again and even released Adblock Plus 1.1.2 as a signed XPI a little more than a week ago.

Adblock Plus 1.1.2 released · 2009-12-12 10:30 by Wladimir Palant

Major changes

Minimal Fennec 1.0 support (at least Beta 6 required)
Made subscription downloads support load balancing, downloads can be distributed to several servers now
Subscription downloads no longer fail if network.http.redirection-limit preference is misconfigured
List of filter subscriptions no longer offered only on first installation, also offered on update if the user has neither filter subscriptions nor own filters
Improved recognition of document source for $domain option in the filters

Adblock Plus 1.1.2 release candidate · 2009-12-09 10:39 by Wladimir Palant

Adblock Plus 1.1.2 release is coming close, the current development build (Adblock Plus 1.1.1+.2009120902) is a release candidate. Recent changes:

Improved the way “Subscribe” links in webpages are handled by Fennec, this makes it possible to add a subscription that isn’t on the list of recommendations. These links can be tested here.
“Subscribe” links that aren’t pointing to a valid HTTP/FTP location will no longer be handled.
Users without filters will be presented a list of subscriptions to choose from on update as well, not only on a new install.
Subscription downloads will no longer fail if the user misconfigured “network.http.redirection-limit” preference.

Adblock Plus roadmap · 2009-12-03 11:11 by Wladimir Palant

I understand that the decision making process around Adblock Plus hasn’t been very transparent, particularly when it comes to questions like “what will go into that release” or “when is this release done”. I decided to put up a roadmap that lists the features being considered for future releases (at least the ones where the details have been worked out enough to be implemented). I’ll try to keep this list up to date and it is open for discussion of course (preferably in the forum). Releases generally happen when all features have been implemented (or moved out to future releases) and sufficiently tested in development builds (meaning at least a week of testing). This is where the tentative release date for Adblock Plus 1.1.2 comes from — with all features being done it is going to be released at the end of the testing phase if no issues come up.