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Firefox disables a Plugin


catscomputer

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Hello. ;) I was browsing the fourm here a few hours ago and Firefox popped up with a small window telling me it had disabled a plugin that was a security risk. (Unfortunately I forget the exact words).

Now in my add-ons under plugins, I see that MetaStream 3 Plugin version 3.2.2.26 has been "disabled for my protection". I remember Firefox did this several months ago with the Windows Presentation Foundation plugin.

I've just done some Scroogling about what's happened to make Firefox take this course of action, but I have not found anything. I have also doen a search of "What is MetaStream 3 Plugin" and also found nothing. I'm happy for it to disabled if it's a threat to my PC, but can anyone tell me what this Plugin actually does, or is supposed to do? I'm just curious. Using FF 3.0.7 btw (yes I know version 3.6 is out but I'm holding off on updating for a few weeks while they sort out any teething troubles).

Thanks ;)

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Catscomputer,

You're using 3.0.7 ? ;) I hope you mean 3.5.7 ;)

Anyway, I'm waiting a bit too. 3.5.7 will be maintained with security and stability updates till August 2010, so we're good ;)

I don't have that plugin. What does it do?

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@Mountaintree16

Whoops! I do mean 3.5.7 yes. Slip of the finger there ;) I had no idea what the plugin is for or what it is part of (hence asking in my post), though exile360 has explained in a comment in this thread. So you don't have that in your list of plugins in FF? Tools >Add-ons>plugins (not extensions)

@exile360

Thanks. Interesting ... I have never heard of this "Viewpoint media player" thing, and I did a search for "viewpoint" in my start bar and nothing came up, however it does show in my control panel under the list of installed programmes. I suspect came bundled with the computer (HP), or with something I've downloaded subsequently (can't think what though), or it just happened to come with Firefox. I really don't know. Curiously, in the list of installed programmes in my control panel it has exactly the same wee icon next to it as Windows Media Player (The turquiose square with the orange circle inside it & the white arrow in the centre).

I just looked in my addons in IE8 to see if I have this plugin in that too. I can't see it, but I noticed something else that doesn't look quite right. IE8> Tools>Manage Addons>Toolbars and Extensions (showing all, not just the ones currently loaded) and I have two plugins for Windows Media Player. They are both Active X Controls and both are enabled. One is dated 16-07-2009 and is version 11.0.6002.18065, and one is dated 11-09-2009 & is version 11.0.6002.18111 (which happens to match the version number of my WMP if you look at the "about" tab in the help menu of WMP). Would it be prudent for me to disable the version dated in July 2009 & keep the Sept 2009 one enabled in IE8? They look like the same thing...

EDIT_ I have just scroogled "what is viewpoint media player" & followed a link to wikipedia. hxxp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viewpoint_Media_Player Among the crapware that came with my HP computer was AOL/AIM. According to this wikipedia article it gets installed without your knowledge with that & other programmes. Hate that! It also reinstalls itself without permission if you have a programme installed that uses it. Hate that too! ;)

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Yes it probably came with AIM, and AIM came bundled with the computer unfortunately. That was a good bit of detective work finding out what the MetaStream plugin related to, as I couldn't see Viewpoint Media Player mentioned in any of the things I clicked on in my searches.

OK re WMP plugins. I wondered if it might have something to do with the active x bug that happened last July, and if the Sept version contained the fix for that. As long as it definitely isn't a vulnerability.

Thanks heaps exile. Much appreciated. ;)

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@ Catscomputer

Nope, its not on my Firefox plugins. I had gotten rid of Viewpoint then when I updated aim, it re-installed it self claiming it was "necessary" for aim. Bleh. But I uninstalled it afterwards.

Silly Viewpoint ;)

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This is good for a plug in check http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/plugincheck/

and this is the list of the plug ins FF disables https://www.mozilla.com/en-US/blocklist/

though it might take them 24 hours + to update the list as the disable the plug in first.

I noticed in the check I still had the Divx web player I forgot to remove when I unistalled it, possibly revo missed that some how.

Edit

I cannot find Divx on my computer to manually uninstall it, the plugin just lets you disable it only but I would like to remove it but not even "everything" finds it, can anyone help?

Edit

I found this on moz site https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Troubl...alling_a_plugin and I sort of did what they said to do but instead of renaming it I just deleted the files! I hope that works too as renaming them to remove then sounded strange.. but then again they know best.

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H chimpy ;)

Please do the following so I can take a look:

  • Please copy and paste the following text exactly as written into notepad (not wordpad or any other text editor):
    @echo off
    reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\MozillaPlugins" /s>"%userprofile%\desktop\Mozilla Plugins.txt"
    "%userprofile%\desktop\Mozilla Plugins.txt"
    del /f /q "%userprofile%\desktop\Mozilla Plugins.txt"
    del /f /q %0

    Once you've done that click on File and select Save As...

  • In the Save dialogue box click on the drop down menu next to Save as type and select All Files
  • Name the file MozillaCheck.bat (the .bat extension is very important)
  • Save the file to your desktop and double click it to run it.
  • Once it finishes it will open the file it created in notepad, please copy and paste the file's contents into your next reply.

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Thanks for those links Chimpy - esp the blocklist one. It doesn't mention the MetaStream 3 one yet, but I'm sure it'll get added soon. After what I've read on Viewpoint Media player in the wikipedia page I linked to, Viewpoint isn't something I want on my PC at all anyway. It smacks of adware to me.

I forgot about that Mozilla blocklist page. After getting the blocked plugin pop-up notification I went looking at the mozilla security blog ( http://blog.mozilla.com/security/ ) and the mozillazine forums but there wasn't anything on it. Then I did a search usuing Scroogle and got zip. Judging by how many views this thread has had compared to other posts in this section of the forum, I suspect others have been searching for answers after getting the block notification too. They're probably wondering what the heck the plugin is also...

Good luck with resolving the Divx issue. Sounds like exile is on to it. ;) (What would we do without him eh?)

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So true catscomputer ;)

Thanks exile360 it does look at there are reg keys left over so maybe I should have just done what the instructions said ;)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MozillaPlugins\@adobe.com/FlashPlayer

Path REG_SZ C:\Windows\system32\Macromed\Flash\NPSWF32.dll

XPTPath REG_SZ C:\Windows\system32\Macromed\Flash\flashplayer.xpt

ProductName REG_SZ Adobe

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Backup the Registry:

Modifying the Registry can create unforeseen problems, so it always wise to create a backup before doing so.

  • Please download ERUNT from here
  • ERUNT (Emergency Recovery Utility NT) is a free program that allows you to keep a complete backup of your registry and restore it when needed.
  • Double click on erunt-setup.exe to Install ERUNT by following the prompts.
  • Use the default install settings but say NO to the portion that asks you to add ERUNT to the Start-Up folder. You can enable this option later if you wish.
  • Start ERUNT either by double clicking on the desktop icon or choosing to start the program at the end of the setup process.
  • Choose a location for the backup.
    • Note: the default location is C:\Windows\ERDNT which is acceptable.

    [*]Make sure that at least the first two check boxes are selected.

    [*]Click on OK

    [*]Then click on YES to create the folder.

Note: if it is necessary to restore the registry, open the backup folder and start ERDNT.exe

Create a Reg File:

  • Please copy and paste the following text exactly as written into notepad (not wordpad or any other text editor):
    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

    [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MozillaPlugins\@divx.com]

    Press Enter twice on your keyboard to insert 2 blank lines at the bottom of the text file

  • Once you've done that click on File and select Save As...
  • In the Save dialogue box click on the drop down menu next to Save as type and select All Files
  • Name the file DivX Dies.reg (the .reg extension is very important)
  • Save the file to your desktop and double click it to run it. Answer Yes or Ok to any prompts.

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Hi Exile it seems there is still Divx stuff remaining.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MozillaPlugins\@adobe.com/FlashPlayer

Path REG_SZ C:\Windows\system32\Macromed\Flash\NPSWF32.dll

XPTPath REG_SZ C:\Windows\system32\Macromed\Flash\flashplayer.xpt

ProductName REG_SZ Adobe

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Indeed it does. There's something very odd about the output from the batch file I had you create. I noticed a few things that differ from any other results I've ever seen from an XP system in its formatting:

  1. It does not list the version of REG.EXE at the beginning of the results
  2. It lists @ before subkeys instead of the actual reg paths
  3. The formatting of subkeys\values is also abnormal

I'm honestly not sure what this indicates but I do believe I can still remove the DivX entries from your registry with this new information.

Create a current registry backup with ERUNT and then do the following:

Create a Reg File:

  • Please copy and paste the following text exactly as written into notepad (not wordpad or any other text editor):
    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

    [-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MozillaPlugins\divx.com]

    Press Enter twice on your keyboard to insert 2 blank lines at the bottom of the text file

  • Once you've done that click on File and select Save As...
  • In the Save dialogue box click on the drop down menu next to Save as type and select All Files
  • Name the file DivX Dies.reg (the .reg extension is very important)
  • Save the file to your desktop and double click it to run it. Answer Yes or Ok to any prompts.

Reboot your PC and once that's all done do the following so we can verify the fix:

  • Please copy and paste the following text exactly as written into notepad (not wordpad or any other text editor):
    @echo off
    reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\MozillaPlugins" /s>"%userprofile%\desktop\Mozilla Plugins.txt"
    "%userprofile%\desktop\Mozilla Plugins.txt"
    del /f /q "%userprofile%\desktop\Mozilla Plugins.txt"
    del /f /q %0

    Once you've done that click on File and select Save As...

  • In the Save dialogue box click on the drop down menu next to Save as type and select All Files
  • Name the file MozillaCheck.bat (the .bat extension is very important)
  • Save the file to your desktop and double click it to run it.
  • Once it finishes it will open the file it created in notepad, please copy and paste the file's contents into your next reply.

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Did what you posted to the letter but its still there :)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MozillaPlugins\@adobe.com/FlashPlayer

Path REG_SZ C:\Windows\system32\Macromed\Flash\NPSWF32.dll

XPTPath REG_SZ C:\Windows\system32\Macromed\Flash\flashplayer.xpt

ProductName REG_SZ Adobe

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Alright then. Lets try exporting that key a different way. This will not alter your system registry, it's only going to read the entry and create a text file the same as the batch file you used previously:

  • Please copy and paste the following text exactly as written into notepad (not wordpad or any other text editor):
    @echo off
    regedit /e "%userprofile%\desktop\Mozilla Plugins.txt" "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\MozillaPlugins"
    "%userprofile%\desktop\Mozilla Plugins.txt"
    del /f /q "%userprofile%\desktop\Mozilla Plugins.txt"
    del /f /q %0

    Once you've done that click on File and select Save As...

  • In the Save dialogue box click on the drop down menu next to Save as type and select All Files
  • Name the file RegCheck.bat (the .bat extension is very important)
  • Save the file to your desktop and double click it to run it.
  • Once it finishes it will open the file it created in notepad, please copy and paste the file's contents into your next reply.

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