firefox addons in offline template VMs

[David Hobach]

Dear all,

does anyone have a good solution for offline firefox addon installation
& regular updates to template VMs?

If so, I'd be delighted if you shared your idea or code.

Otherwise I'd probably write a few lines to download the addons in a
separate VM, pass it to the offline template via qvm-copy and update the
respective firefox folders there. [1]

[1]
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/WebExtensions/Alternative_distribution_options/Sideloading_add-ons#Installation_using_the_standard_extension_folders

KR
David

[David Hobach]

I attached my own solution for idea sharing. If you want to use it, I'd
suggest an intensive code review (it's dom0 code after all) and even
then you'll have to use it at your own risk!

It probably only works with 4.0rc4. The download part might work with
any OS.

----------------------

qFirefoxUpdate [options] [download VM] [target VM] [firefox path]
[firefox profile path] [qFirefoxDownload parameter 1] ...
[qFirefoxDownload param n]

Dom0 script to update firefox and its plugins in an offline Qubes VM by
downloading the updates in an online VM.

SECURITY NOTE: A compromised [download VM] of course adds a lot of new
attack vectors for your [target VM]. Thus please use a fresh disposable
[download VM] from a trusted template.

[download VM]: Online VM to use to download updates.
[target VM]: Offline VM which is meant to be updated.
[firefox path]: Path to the firefox installation in the [target VM]. A
binary file named updater must reside there.
[firefox profile path]: Path to the firefox profile in the [target VM]
for which to update the addons.
[qFirefoxDownload parameters]: Arbitrary number of qFirefoxDownload
parameters in the syntax of the qFirefoxDownload script. Usually you'll
want at least to put the addon names here. Execute it to get further help.

Example:
qFirefoxUpdate disp233 debian-9 /usr/share/firefox
/usr/share/.mozilla/firefox/mwztm3a.default umatrix
Update firefox in the VM named debian-9 (folder: /usr/share/firefox) as
well as the add-on named umatrix in the profile folder mwztm3a.default.
Use disp233 to download the necessary updates.

> KR
> David