Firefox add-on developers may roll back all users to earlier versions of their extensions now

For many users, a key feature of web browsers is the ability to install add-ons. These extensions improve browsing in meaningful ways, from blocking unwanted content over making downloads more user-friendly, to modifying certain aspects of websites.

Sometimes, however, add-on updates may introduce problems of their own. Developers needed to release an update to address the issue in the past, which sometimes, was delayed because of Mozilla's review processes. Even the most popular developers, like Raymond Hill, who creates the uBlock Origin and uBlock Origin Lite extensions, have faced issues with that review process.

Soon, developers of Firefox extensions have another option to deal with issues in the most recent version of their add-ons.

Mozilla announced the ability for developers to roll back to a previous version of their extension. The main idea behind the feature is to speed up the troubleshooting and reduce issues that users of the extension may encounter.

Mozilla writes: "If developing a revised version and obtaining a review won't address the issue quickly enough, you can roll back to an earlier version of your extension.".

The process relies on Firefox's check for extension updates. When a developer enables a roll back, Firefox will download and install the previous version of the extension the next time it checks for extension updates.

Users who have disabled the check in their Firefox copy need to run a manual check for updates to initiate the rollback.

The only limitation of the feature is that at least two approved versions of an extension need to be available. On Mozilla's official add-ons store for Firefox, developers may only roll back to the version released before the one that requires the rollback.

Developers who self-host their extensions do not have such limitations. They may initiate rollbacks to any approved version. Mozilla did not mention why the difference exists.

Closing Words

Giving add-on developers another option to deal with issues that appeared after they release a new version of their extension is a good idea. Developers may react quickly by enabling rollbacks to previous versions, deal with the issue, and release an updated version when it is ready.

This simplifies and improves the process for users, who would otherwise run into issues, if they downloaded and installed the extension version that has issues.

Can this somehow be abused? In theory, it is possible to roll back to a very early approved version if the add-on is self-hosted. A hacker or disgruntled employee could do that, but if they have access to the account, they could very well delete the extensions outright or modify them.

Firefox users just need to be aware that the version of installed extensions may change now to an earlier version, if they have automatic extension updates enabled.

Now You: how do you handle updates for extensions? Do you let your browser do the updating, or prefer to update manually instead?

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☞ El artículo completo original de Martin Brinkmann lo puedes ver aquí