FFCE falls short: disable file downloads thru AD?

[ReedMikel]

While FFCE is great in that it allows us to configure FF settings thru AD, there is a vital setting that is missing: the ability to DISABLE FILE DOWNLOADS! As an IT consultant for many small and medium businesses, one of the very first security issues that I am asked about is whether I can block all, or selected, users from being able to download files off the Internet. With IE, that's easily accomplished with an AD setting that has been available for many years. But FFCE sorely lacks in this regard - so I cannot use FF at many of my clients

I hope I am wrong and that an admin will educate me as to an existing FFCE AD setting that can block file downloads?

If I am right, PLEASE add this feature ASAP - PLEASE?

Regards,

-Mike

[ReedMikel]

What an inactive forum, I thought for sure an admin would chime in

[DraconPern]

There is not such a setting. I don't think this feature will never be implemented.

[ReedMikel]

That's really disappointing news for IT administrators. The ability to prevent downloads in IE (using an AD setting ) makes for a much more secure computer environment for businesses. Are you saying it cannot be done, or you are not interested in doing it? If the latter, why?

I guess you are saying that FireFox has no such setting, so it's impossible for you to add it in FFCE?

I guess I will switch all my clients back to IE. Too bad, because FireFox is such a nice browser

[DraconPern]

ah, it's more like there is not much demand for it. The reason is because most people do need the ability to download files typically from their intranet site, etc. For example, you can't view PDF's properly if download is disabled.

[ReedMikel]

Depends on how clever one is in implementing the download restrictions. Imagine AD settings such as:

Disable Downloads:
[ ] - All (disables ALL downloads)
[x] - By Extension
".exe, .cmd, .bat ..."

I'm sure you've seen settings like this that allow a great degree of granularity in AD. Add something like this and you can actually be proactive and prevent LOTS of IT security issues at businesses. I guarantee it

[ReedMikel]

And if one really gets clever, you could borrow IE's approach and distinguish between Internet and Intranet downloads. Notice that this AD setting for IE is located at Windows Components->IE->Security Page->Internet Zone. That would address your concern about users downloading PDFs on their company's Intranet...

Interestingly, back on Nov 19th you replied to this very same topic, and had no objections:
Hum.. Firefox doesn't appear to have a corresponding setting for that. May be some custom code is in order.

[ReedMikel]

If FrontMotion essentially repackages the Mozilla FireFox browser, maybe I should be posting this enhancement request to Mozilla? I assume for FrontMotion to implement any AD setting, there must already be a similar configuration option built into FireFox? Or can you somehow introduce totally new settings that are not present in the native FireFox browser as provided by Mozilla?

[DraconPern]

It's possible to introduce new settings. This is how the setting profile.enable_profile_migration is implemented. It is not an option that exists with the official build of Firefox.

[ReedMikel]

So does that mean you could add such a setting (to block downloads - all or by extensions)? How about Internet vs Intranet downloads - does FF distinguish between these two security zones like IE?

[DraconPern]

FF doesn't have the concept of 'zones' as far as I know. The best way to get this ball moving, is to open an item on bugzilla for the firefox project. Post the link to it here so that people can gauge the interest.

[ReedMikel]

What is bugzilla? I tried bugzilla.com/org/net and found nothing of relevance...

So what changed between Nov and now? Back in Nov you seemed to think some new code could do this...

Can you post a survey as a sticky on this forum to gauge interest? I see almost 90 views have occurred on this thread (not sure if it counts each time you and I update the thread?), so there seems to be some interest...

[DraconPern]

Poll at http://forums.frontmotion.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=487

[ReedMikel]

Thanks for the survey!

So what is bugzilla?

[jgcracknell2]

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/ is where you go to ask for features or report bugs in Mozilla Products.