best way to back up and restore Firefox bookmarks and settings

With all its settings and add-ins, Firefox is a wonderfully configurable browser. Yet there's no obvious way to backup any of those configurations, or to move them to a new computer. There isn't even a clear way to save your bookmarks.

While there isn't a clear way, there is a reasonably easy one. You just have to know how. The trick is to back up one particular folder. I can't tell you the name of that folder, because the name is different on your computer than on mine, but I can tell you how to find it:

First, close Firefox. Doing this while the browser is running will be disastrous.

Once it's closed, select Start, then Run, type (with the percentage signs) and press Navigate the resulting Windows Explorer window to (in other words, open the Mozilla folder inside your current location, then the Firefox folder inside that, and so on).

Now that you're in the Profiles folder, you'll see another folder with a random name and the extension .default--something like 4hw0enat.default. That's what you have to back up--that folder and all the files and folders inside it. Copy it to a safe location.

Here's how to restore it after you've bought a new PC or reinstalled Windows:

First, you'll have to install, run, and close Firefox on your new or newly setup PC. Then use the instructions above to find your new Firefox installation Profiles folder. Copy your old .default folder from the backup into that new Profiles folder.

You'll now have two .default folders in Profiles. With the one you just copied selected, press to rename it, to copy the name, then to not rename it, after all.

Move up the folder tree to the containing folder, which is called Firefox. Double-click the profiles.ini (Configuration Settings) file to open it in Notepad.

The last line of this file begins with Path=Profiles/. Select the rest of that line (everything to the right of the slash), and press to insert the name of your restored folder. Save the file, then open Firefox and everything should come up the way you want it.

Source: washingtonpost.com

Mozilla Shuts Firefox e-store After Security Breach

Mozilla temporary closed its online e-store late Tuesday after getting out that the firm it hired to run the backend operations of the company's e-tailing business had suffered a security breach.

It was cryptic whether the vendor, St. Louis-based GatewayCDI, which bills itself as a "promotional articles benefactor and allurement company," notified Mozilla or whether the browser maker found out about the breach some other way.

"Today, Mozilla apparent that GatewayCDI, the third-party bell-ringer entrusted to run the backend of the Mozilla Store, suffered a security breach," Mozilla said in a warning on its Web site. "Once notified, we took the actual preventive step of shutting down the Mozilla store to ensure that no added users could be compromised."

Mozilla as well took the all-embracing copy of its e-store offline as a precaution, although that accomplishment is maintained by an abstracted partner.

Late Tuesday, both store displayed letters that they were "closed for maintenance;" neither message, however, spelled out the reason.

The store advertise promotional items, such as T-shirts, backpacks, coffee mugs and abrasion pads emblazoned with aggregation logos, as able-bodied as the Firefox browser on CD.

Mozilla's advertisement did not detail the extent of the breach, what advice hackers ability accept accessed or stolen, or how the aperture happened. GatewayCDI was not accessible late Tuesday, and there was no notice on its site that it had sustained a breach.

According to Mozilla, its online store may be shuttered for some time. "The store will alone be reinstated already we accept a satisfactory affirmation of advancing login security and data privacy," the company said.

This situation was the first for Mozilla, an open-source developer that prides itself on its operational transparency.

The company's Firefox accounts for about 22.5% of the browser market, according to lots of recent data from Web metrics firm Net Applications.

Firefox 3.5.2 and 3.0.13 Security Updates Ready for Download

Earlier Mozilla Firefox was in our news if it appears its 3.0.12 update. The company has now appeared that its Firefox 3.5.2 and 3.0.13 updates are accessible for download. This is all allotment of the company’s advancing security and stability update process.

The latest offerings are accordant with Mac, Windows and Linux systems and can be downloaded chargeless of charge. Mozilla encourages the users of its Firefox browser to advancement their systems with the new releases.

For users who already acquire Firefox 3.5 or Firefox 3, will accept a update notification automatically. This will probably take place within a couple of day’s time. They can as well manually administer the updates by beat on ‘Check for Updates’ which is located in the Help menu.

The users of Firefox 3.0.x are as well recommended to advancement their browser to Firefox 3.5.2. They can do this by downloading the advancement from the Firefox website. They can as well do so by going to the Help menu and ‘Check for Updates’.

Mozilla Squashes Critical Bugs in Firefox

Mozilla on Monday issued an update for Firefox that fixes serious security bugs in the accepted open-source browser, including one exposed last week that could accomplish it simple for attackers to spoof SSL certificates acclimated to defended websites.

The vulnerability meant Firefox could be tricked by rogue certificates, a potentially dangerous alarming that could permit attackers to create convincing-looking forgeries of websites used for banking, email and other added sensitive services. The address works by abacus a simple absent cord appearance to several affidavit fields and was apart appear at the Black Hat aegis appointment by advisers Moxie Marlinspike and Dan Kaminsky.

"We strongly recommend that all Firefox users upgrade to this latest release," a statement on Mozilla's website read.

The SSL vulnerability permitted Marlinspike to actualize what he called accepted wildcard certificate that acquired Firefox to authenticate every domain name on the internet. He did so by applying for a accustomed certificate for his website thoughtcrime.org. In the commonName acreage he listed the website as *\0.thoughtcrime.org, causing the browser to accept the certificate was universally valid.

The vulnerability was repaired in version 3.5 of the browser, according to this archive of security advisories. Curiously, the archive shows the aforementioned aperture getting acquainted in adaptation 3.52, which was appearing Monday. Separate security advisories for 3.0 appearances it was as well fixed in version 3.0.13.
Mozilla said three of its added products - Thunderbird, SeaMonkey and NSS - are accessible to the aforementioned attack. Presumably, fixes for those applications will be forthcoming.

The application brings the latest version of Firefox to 3.5.2. For those who are unable to advancement to version 3.5 of the internet browser installation, the open-source accouterments issued a application that brings the earlier version to 3.0.13. The vulnerabilities administer to the Windows, Mac and Linux platforms.

It is the second time in 18 days that Mozilla has anchored serious bugs in its flagship web browser. Two weeks ago, the foundation rushed out an application to adjustment a javascript-based memory corruption bug that was already getting targeted in the wild.

Marlinspike said a lot of internet client-side software that implements SSL are accessible to the null-string bug, so we had expect this to be the aboriginal of abounding patches acclimation that vulnerability.