Fixed Eclipsed Moon Extension

[laki2]

Hi everyone,

Recently I was thinking a bit about developing some extensions and themes for pale moon.

For now, I have just fixed the Eclipsed Moon extension (a user agent switcher), because I tried using it and noticed that it wasn't working since pale moon changed the way it handles the user agent. I also noticed (albeit after fixing it, I'm not sure if the original version works) that it doesn't work with basilisk, so I managed to fix that as well (testing still needed).

Now how do I get the modified extension published? I wouldn't mind maintaining the extension, but I cannot provide any guarantees as I am not very experienced yet.

Can I share the extension here for someone to test?

Thanks!

[UCyborg]

Other people have shared their modified extensions here as well, I don't think it's a problem.

[moonbat]

User agent switchers are of no use from a privacy perspective and will only break websites. It's a waste of time trying to fix this extension in particular. Pale Moon already has site specific overrides for individual sites that break because of UA sniffing. There are multiple other ways to uniquely identify an individual browser than merely looking at the user agent, you're better off with a properly configured adblocker.

[Falna]

Recently I was thinking a bit about developing some extensions and themes for pale moon....
Now how do I get the modified extension published? I wouldn't mind maintaining the extension, but I cannot provide any guarantees as I am not very experienced yet.

Cool!

The information here will be useful: READ FIRST when you want to publish add-ons.

[laki2]

User agent switchers are of no use from a privacy perspective and will only break websites. It's a waste of time trying to fix this extension in particular. Pale Moon already has site specific overrides for individual sites that break because of UA sniffing. There are multiple other ways to uniquely identify an individual browser than merely looking at the user agent, you're better off with a properly configured adblocker.

I already fixed the extension, which took about 15 minutes. One of the main motivations was simply that it hadn’t been updated in nearly 10 years and was still being distributed on the Pale Moon addons site despite being broken on current versions. Keeping obviously non functional extensions around helps no one, and it’s safe to assume there are users who still find this functionality useful (I have seen some forum posts).

When it comes to the usability of websites, most websites will work fine with a modified user agent. I can modify the addon to ignore sites with an override.

An issue with UA switching is that it can become ineffective when switching the user agent for a specific website too often/at all, since the website will know what IP the requests are coming from anyway, linking your browsing sessions and making it obvious that you are switching the UA. This can be mitigated by enabling a whitelist from the UA rotation.

From a privacy perspective, UA switching alone is insufficient, as is poisoning canvas data, but when used together with other fingerprint reduction techniques (cookies, font, canvas, etc) it can be pretty powerful. The Pale Moon user agent is very unique and will make you stick out like a sore thumb when a website which uses it for tracking/spying inevitably looks at it (increases fingerprintability)

I have done some research, and it is pretty easy to detect when a user agent has been modified (e.g. pale moon browser displaying other information as Firefox does, even if it uses a Firefox user agent string). This remains an issue.

By the way, of course I use an ad-blocker/content blocker (nMatrix), I don't think anyone should browse the web without one. However a user agent is still logged and used even with an ad-blocker installed.

[FranklinDM]

One of the main motivations was simply that it hadn’t been updated in nearly 10 years and was still being distributed on the Pale Moon addons site despite being broken on current versions. Keeping obviously non functional extensions around helps no one, and it’s safe to assume there are users who still find this functionality useful (I have seen some forum posts).

Agreed.

I would also suggest rebranding or renaming the fixed extension, going beyond what was mentioned in the linked forum post. Once submitted, reviewed, and published, I will likely delist the original extension since it hasn't been updated since 2018 and even has a dead link to a file stored from the old add-ons site.

[laki2]

Agreed.

I would also suggest rebranding or renaming the fixed extension, going beyond what was mentioned in the linked forum post. Once submitted, reviewed, and published, I will likely delist the original extension since it hasn't been updated since 2018 and even has a dead link to a file stored from the old add-ons site.

I liked the Eclipsed Moon name, but I guess I could add my name and some other branding? Or do you have any suggestions for a better name? I have made a Phoebus Panel account and will submit it soon after a bit more testing/development!

[jarsealer]

I have some suggestions I suppose: Crescent(ic) Moon or Cloaked Moon.

[Falna]

Or do you have any suggestions for a better name?

Switched Moon, to reflect what it does?

[laki2]

Not sure which name is better

[Moonchild]

Maybe "Moon Agent"/"Moonagent" or something if you want to stick with the "Moon" moniker.

[laki2]

I think I'll go for cloaked moon but hey I may change it up later as im not gonna publish it just yet! It's not a big deal anyway