Is Firefox that secure?
Dont get me wrong, Firefox rocks my socks off. But having ported my Firefox profile across many different computers and installs. I have thought that if I was to leave the Firefox profile (simply, a folder) of my home computer on my USB key and was to lose it, could someone copy my profile from my USB key and then have all my Firefox preferences, extensions and ultimately my passwords?
The process of copying your Firefox profile and installing it on a computer is as simple as:
1. Shut down Firefox completely (File > Exit).
2. Navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\[username]\Application Data\Mozilla\ and copy the folder “Firefox”. Backup to removable media.
3. Navigate to the same folder on your other computer and overwrite the folder by pasting the Firefox one you copied.
It’s that easy, just think of the passwords people (or even I) could steal by copying a customers Firefox folder and using them to log in to their favourite E-Commerce sites.
I could be wrong, you cant do this with Internet Explorer (that I’m aware of), but isnt that a major security risk?
i think the assumption is that the profile is secure but you would think that they would at least ensure there was no change to the SID or something just to make sure the account using the profile was the same that installed it…
There maybe something like that in the works, it just strikes me as odd that you can just copy a folder and have someones complete browsing history, settings, cookies and passwords.