New Tabs Don't Open Sites in Firefox 58 with MBAE 1.12.1.37

[Gruff]

I've been using MBAE Beta 1.12.1.37 for quite some time with no ill effects.  Lately, however, I started experiencing a problem with Firefox.  Sites would not open in new tabs, whether I opened a tab first and used a bookmark or typed in an URL or right-clicked on a link and selected "Open in new tab."  This behavior was erratic -- sometimes sites would open and sometimes they would not, but mostly, sites would just not open.

I tried the usual Firefox troubleshooting:  started in FF Safe Mode; uninstalled all add-ons; cleared cache and cookies; refreshed FF; uninstalled FF and downloaded and installed a new copy.  Nothing worked until I realized that although MBAE is not an "add-on" per se, it was starting with Firefox, even in FF Safe Mode.

I disabled MBAE and the problem seems to have gone away, although it's been less than a day and I'm still testing.

I don't know exactly when this behavior started, but it's currently happening with Firefox 58.0.2 (64) running on Windows 7 Pro x64 (uptodate with all Windows Update patches).

Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit.zip

Edited March 9, 2018 by Gruff
added MBAE data file

[Arthi]

Thanks for reporting, Gruff.

Please follow the below instructions to get us some logs. We will look into it.

 

[Gruff]

Sorry.  You reminded me just as i was editing the original post to add the zip file.

 

[Arthi]

Gruff,

It looks like you attached just the C:\Program Files (x86)\Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit folder. Please follow #3 and #6 as well in the above Log instruction link. Thanks. 

Edited March 9, 2018 by Arthi

[Chlpaten]

Here too - Firefox 58.0.2 get message that a "Plugin container for Firefox has stopped working."  Multiple crashes.

It's the latest update to anti-exploit that installed 3-8-2018.  Before that installed, all worked well.

I uninstalled anti-exploit and Firefox no longer crashes.

[Arthi]

Hi Chlpaten,

Please follow the below instructions to get us some logs. We will look into it immediately.

[Arthi]

Hi,

Can you also take a screenshot of all the Add-ons you have installed in your browser?

Thanks.

[Gruff]

Sorry about that.  Please see attached.

As far as the add-ons are concerned, the problem was happening even after I uninstalled all add-ons.  Since I've turned off MBAE, I've reinstalled uBlock Origin, which was the only add-on that was previously present.  See attached jpgs

 

FRST.zip

Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit.zip

[pal1000]

This Firefox crashes uptick has been noticed at Mozilla's end as well. Someone opened this bug report:

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1444019

 

[sueska_mb]

Similar to poster Chlpaten, 

Firefox ESR 52.6.0 (32-bit) was having numerous crashes (with a different message box though) of  "Firefox.exe application error." 

Further troubleshooting of error shows they are categorized as TppCallbackCheckThreadAfterCallback crashes by mozilla firefox.

This is the same error which matches the bugzilla report mentioned by pal1000. 

Was having up to 10 crashes per day since March 8th, which was when the latest update to anti-exploit that installed 3-8-2018.  Before that installed very few firefox crashes.

I disabled malwarebytes anti-exploit and Firefox is no longer crashing. I am sorry I do not have time to investigate or submit logs, but hope my information is helpful in helping others.

Regards,.

[nukecad]

I'm not seeing any of the problems described above, but am seeing multiple crash reports per day in 'About:crashes'.
Turning of MBAE 1.12.1.37 stops the crashes occuring.

One thing of note is that the multiple crashes started on 08/03/2018 - the day after Windows Update installed the latest Cumulative Update to Windows 10 (KB4090913) on 07/03/2018.
(There were more crashes logged on 08/03 than in the previous 2 years).

This is almost a week after MBAE updated to 1.12.1.37 (which happened on 01/03/2018 according to the changelog and file dates).

Which indicates that it may not just be MBAE/Firefox issue, Windows itself may have changed something during the update.

I haven't provided logs, I just wanted to point out the 'coincidence' in the dates.

EDIT

I've just had a pop up that a new version of Firefox is available - V59.0
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/59.0/releasenotes/?utm_campaign=whatsnew&utm_medium=firefox-browser&utm_source=firefox-browser

I'll install that and see if the crashes still occur.

 

EDIT-2
Crashes are still happing, 2 crashes on each launch of FFx 59.0.
(No crashes if MBAE stopped).

(The FFx update does seem to have broken the pinned taskbar icon, may need to restart and rebuild the icon cache, etc.).

Edited March 13, 2018 by nukecad

[nukecad]

20 minutes ago, nukecad said:

 

Not sure what happend to give a quote rather than an edit, (hit the wrong button?, but:

EDIT-3
Wouldn't you know it, I'm now getting the blank new tab problem with FFX 59.0.

Edited March 13, 2018 by nukecad

[nukecad]

46 minutes ago, nukecad said:

Wouldn't you know it, I'm now getting the blank new tab problem with FFX 59.0.

Restarted, (got a few error messages, just clicked through them), unpined the broken icon/link and repinned FFx to the taskbar.

Launched FFx 59.0, came back here, and clicked on a link to open in a new tab.
Got a notification that 'an extension has changed what is displayed in a new tab', and my homepage loaded instead of the link.

(I do have the extension 'New tab Homepage' installed, but that is only supposed to override the default/blank FFx page not a clicked on link).

Closed the tab and tried again, this time it loaded a new tab with the correct, clicked on, link.
Tried a few more and all worked correctly.

SO-

FFx (59.0) back to working as I want it, but when launched it's still generating 2 crash reports in the background if MBAE 1.12.1.37 is running.
Stop MBAE and the crash reports stop, restart MBAE with FFx running and a crash reports gets generated each time you open a new tab.

Just for completeness: Win 10 Home (64-bit), v1709, build 16299.251

PS. I don't think it's relevant but I am also running the Malwarebytes for Firefox experimental add-on. Although I note from the screenshots above that the OP isn't.

Edited March 13, 2018 by nukecad

[ggeinec]

For what it's worth, adding to this topic for Windows 7 and Firefox 58.0.2 for additional information. Feel free to move to a new thread if it doesn't belong here.

On March 8  we received the unprompted 1.12.1.37 update to our standalone copies of MBAE on all three of our PCs. I didn't even realize MBAE had updated until well into the process of trying to debug what was going on with Firefox. 

All three PCs are running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit with Windows Updates current through the end of February.

All three PCs immediately started having problems with Firefox 58.0.2. Since that update Firefox occasionally will successfully launch and open with the requested page. But the vast majority of the time it tries to launch, it paints the right half of the toolbar, it then shows the spinning circle in an empty page for as long as we let it spin. When that happens we close Firefox and re-try anywhere from one to dozens of times and get the same result again before we get a successful session.

If we are lucky and Firefox successfully opens and loads the requested page we generally can keep the session going as long as we stay inside that open window. We can load new pages by using bookmarks or history links or links on the page that do not take us out of the window. If a link tries to take us out of the open window to a new tab or a new window we almost always  get the empty window with spinning circle.

Firefox behaves the same way with all add-ons disabled and when started in safe mode.

Uninstalling MBAE puts Firefox back to normal behavior again on my sacrificial PC. I haven't uninstalled it yet on the other two PCs.

[nukecad]

13 hours ago, ggeinec said:

On March 8  we received the unprompted 1.12.1.37 update to our standalone copies of MBAE on all three of our PCs.

All three PCs immediately started having problems with Firefox 58.0.2.

Mmm, that's an interesting date to tie in with what I said in post #11.

I am not seeing any on screen problems, but I did start getting FFx  crash reports generated, also starting on 8th March after a Windows Update on the 7th. (Updated last thing before I shut down for the day).
I had already had MBAE v 1.12.1.37 running for over a week by then with no crashes generated.

It could be relevant, so did you also get a Windows Update on 7th/8th March?
(I note that you say current to the end of February, but it might be worth a double check).

PS. I have had a PM from Arthi requesting some further testing and logs, which I have duly sent.

[Arthi]

Hi all,

An update on this issue. We are still analyzing the logs and since we have been unable to reproduce the issue in-house, we are doing a couple of remote sessions with forum patrons to further debug the issue. 

We will be releasing a 1.12.1.42 version today, which addresses a new protection technique to guard against Process Hollowing. However, the newer version also does not include a fix for the issues mentioned in this post.

We are working on it and will keep you all posted.

Thanks for your patience and support !!

[ggeinec]

11 hours ago, nukecad said:

Mmm, that's an interesting date to tie in with what I said in post #11.

I am not seeing any on screen problems, but I did start getting FFx  crash reports generated, also starting on 8th March after a Windows Update on the 7th. (Updated last thing before I shut down for the day).
I had already had MBAE v 1.12.1.37 running for over a week by then with no crashes generated.

It could be relevant, so did you also get a Windows Update on 7th/8th March?
(I note that you say current to the end of February, but it might be worth a double check).

PS. I have had a PM from Arthi requesting some further testing and logs, which I have duly sent.

My bad. Sorry about that. I should have said "Windows Updates through January" which I applied on all three PCs on February 9. We have no further Windows Updates on any of the PCs after that. I was planning to install the February updates this past weekend but got sidetracked by this Firefox problem.

So no, no Windows Updates on March 7th/8th.

[Arthi]

Hi All,

Can you please try out this test build and let us know if your issue with Firefox crash is resolved.

https://malwarebytes.box.com/s/6m2x01uidtof9jjubyr28byvucr5ic2d

Thanks.

[ggeinec]

Arthi,

I downloaded and installed this new version of MBAE on my sacrificial laptop.

This version of MBAE appears to work fine with Firefox 59.0.1. I launched new Firefox windows, new tabs, new windows and new private windows from inside an already open window, multiple versions of Firefox open at the same time, etc., and Firefox opened and loaded content in every case the way I asked it to.

Tomorrow I will install this new version of MBAE on my desktop to verify that it works there as well.

Thanks for your and your team's persistence in researching and resolving this problem!

[Gruff]

I echo ggeinec's remarks.  MBAE 1.12.1.48 seems to be working well with Firefox 59.0.1.  I haven't had time to test as many situations as ggeinec describes, but I haven't run into any troubles yet.

Thanks, and please let Mickael know.

Edited March 24, 2018 by Gruff

[pal1000]

No more crashes with 1.12.1.48 with Firefox 59.0.1 x64 on Windows 10 1709, It also fixed a false positive with JPCSP running under JRE 10 with Malicious outbound shell protection enabled.

[Arthi]

Thank you All for working with us these past few days. We are glad that the new build fixes your issues.