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xplinstall whitelist -- could this be a sign of malware?

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  • 1 has this problem
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  • Last reply by cor-el

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My firefox has a prefs.js file. I didn't create it. In it I see a bunch of stuff related to xmarks. I imagine this stuff is fine. But I also see the following rather suspicious lines:

user_pref("xpinstall.whitelist.add", ""); user_pref("xpinstall.whitelist.add.36", "");

Furthermore, if I rename prefs.js, it reappears with the old contents. Could all this be a sign of infection?

In addition to the malware issue, this is annoying because I can't set options manually under the tools menu

My firefox has a prefs.js file. I didn't create it. In it I see a bunch of stuff related to xmarks. I imagine this stuff is fine. But I also see the following rather suspicious lines: user_pref("xpinstall.whitelist.add", ""); user_pref("xpinstall.whitelist.add.36", ""); Furthermore, if I rename prefs.js, it reappears with the old contents. Could all this be a sign of infection? In addition to the malware issue, this is annoying because I can't set options manually under the tools menu

Chosen solution

The two whitelist prefs are created after the default addons.mozilla.org and addons.mozilla.org sites are white-listed to allow installing extensions and personas, so no need to worry about those.

xpinstall.whitelist.add  (addons.mozilla.org)
xpinstall.whitelist.add.36 (getpersonas.com)
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Prefs.js is simply where Firefox stores it's preferences. It isn't malware, and it is needed for Firefox to run, so that isn't a sign of being infected.

Now, if you aren't able to set options manually, you may have a locked profile, How to fix preferences that won't save can help with that.

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Chosen Solution

The two whitelist prefs are created after the default addons.mozilla.org and addons.mozilla.org sites are white-listed to allow installing extensions and personas, so no need to worry about those.

xpinstall.whitelist.add  (addons.mozilla.org)
xpinstall.whitelist.add.36 (getpersonas.com)