I just experienced something I had never seen before with Firefox. I am
running Firefox 115.0.2+linuxmint1+una here on linux mint 20.3 with all
current updates applied.

Earlier today I started getting messages in Firefox about a part of the
tab crashing and asking to file an error report. After encountering a
few of these messages I closed Firefox to restart it in hopes of
correcting the problem. Instead I found I could not restart Firefox as
I was getting segfaults. I finally used synaptic to reinstall Firefox.
After this Firefox is now working properly.

Any idea what happened and how to avoid it in the future? I seem to
recall seeing some content on one of the websites I use Firefox for
being gone when I reinstalled and reloaded. Is it possible that a hack
against Firefox was embedded in the content that is now gone?

I use Firefox to deal with websites that refuse to work with SeaMonkey
and use Chromium to address those few that will not work with either.

Dave

David H Durgee wrote:
> I just experienced something I had never seen before with Firefox.  I am
> running Firefox 115.0.2+linuxmint1+una here on linux mint 20.3 with all
> current updates applied.
>
> Earlier today I started getting messages in Firefox about a part of the
> tab crashing and asking to file an error report.  After encountering a
> few of these messages I closed Firefox to restart it in hopes of
> correcting the problem.  Instead I found I could not restart Firefox as
> I was getting segfaults.  I finally used synaptic to reinstall Firefox.
> After this Firefox is now working properly.
>
> Any idea what happened and how to avoid it in the future?  I seem to
> recall seeing some content on one of the websites I use Firefox for
> being gone when I reinstalled and reloaded.  Is it possible that a hack
> against Firefox was embedded in the content that is now gone?
>
> I use Firefox to deal with websites that refuse to work with SeaMonkey
> and use Chromium to address those few that will not work with either.
>
> Dave

An alternative hypothesis would be something along the lines of a
hardware error corrupting your Firefox executable.
Whatever it is, it's ugly. A Firefox hack would have to be tailored to
(your distribution of) Linux along with some privilege escalation.

Not strictly relevant, but I have an /etc/firefox/policies/policies.json
which allows me to set various options for all profiles, one of those is
"DisableAppUpdate": true
The point of that one is that the Package manager for the distribution
is the only process I permit to update Firefox. about:policies lists
the options, and it's probably about time I checked for new ones.

Don Vito Martinelli wrote:
> David H Durgee wrote:
>> I just experienced something I had never seen before with Firefox.  I
>> am running Firefox 115.0.2+linuxmint1+una here on linux mint 20.3 with
>> all current updates applied.
>>
>> Earlier today I started getting messages in Firefox about a part of
>> the tab crashing and asking to file an error report.  After
>> encountering a few of these messages I closed Firefox to restart it in
>> hopes of correcting the problem.  Instead I found I could not restart
>> Firefox as I was getting segfaults.  I finally used synaptic to
>> reinstall Firefox. After this Firefox is now working properly.
>>
>> Any idea what happened and how to avoid it in the future?  I seem to
>> recall seeing some content on one of the websites I use Firefox for
>> being gone when I reinstalled and reloaded.  Is it possible that a
>> hack against Firefox was embedded in the content that is now gone?
>>
>> I use Firefox to deal with websites that refuse to work with SeaMonkey
>> and use Chromium to address those few that will not work with either.
>>
>> Dave
>
> An alternative hypothesis would be something along the lines of a
> hardware error corrupting your Firefox executable.
> Whatever it is, it's ugly.  A Firefox hack would have to be tailored to
> (your distribution of) Linux along with some privilege escalation.
>
> Not strictly relevant, but I have an /etc/firefox/policies/policies.json
> which allows me to set various options for all profiles, one of those is
> "DisableAppUpdate": true
> The point of that one is that the Package manager for the distribution
> is the only process I permit to update Firefox.  about:policies lists
> the options, and it's probably about time I checked for new ones.

The Firefox executable files are owned by root and only have r-x
permission for anyone else, so unless I am mistaken corruption would
have to have involved privilege escalation.

I update Firefox via mint's update manager, so it isn't be handled by
Firefox here either.

Linux mint is based on Ubuntu and in many cases if it impacts Ubuntu it
impacts mint as well.

It is definitely ugly and I hope to avoid a repetition if possible.

Dave

David H Durgee wrote:
> Don Vito Martinelli wrote:
>> David H Durgee wrote:
>>> I just experienced something I had never seen before with Firefox.  I
>>> am running Firefox 115.0.2+linuxmint1+una here on linux mint 20.3
>>> with all current updates applied.
>>>
>>> Earlier today I started getting messages in Firefox about a part of
>>> the tab crashing and asking to file an error report.  After
>>> encountering a few of these messages I closed Firefox to restart it
>>> in hopes of correcting the problem.  Instead I found I could not
>>> restart Firefox as I was getting segfaults.  I finally used synaptic
>>> to reinstall Firefox. After this Firefox is now working properly.
>>>
>>> Any idea what happened and how to avoid it in the future?  I seem to
>>> recall seeing some content on one of the websites I use Firefox for
>>> being gone when I reinstalled and reloaded.  Is it possible that a
>>> hack against Firefox was embedded in the content that is now gone?
>>>
>>> I use Firefox to deal with websites that refuse to work with
>>> SeaMonkey and use Chromium to address those few that will not work
>>> with either.
>>>
>>> Dave
>>
>> An alternative hypothesis would be something along the lines of a
>> hardware error corrupting your Firefox executable.
>> Whatever it is, it's ugly.  A Firefox hack would have to be tailored
>> to (your distribution of) Linux along with some privilege escalation.
>>
>> Not strictly relevant, but I have an
>> /etc/firefox/policies/policies.json which allows me to set various
>> options for all profiles, one of those is
>> "DisableAppUpdate": true
>> The point of that one is that the Package manager for the distribution
>> is the only process I permit to update Firefox.  about:policies lists
>> the options, and it's probably about time I checked for new ones.
>
> The Firefox executable files are owned by root and only have r-x
> permission for anyone else, so unless I am mistaken corruption would
> have to have involved privilege escalation.
>
> I update Firefox via mint's update manager, so it isn't be handled by
> Firefox here either.
>
> Linux mint is based on Ubuntu and in many cases if it impacts Ubuntu it
> impacts mint as well.
>
> It is definitely ugly and I hope to avoid a repetition if possible.
>
> Dave

Yes, and privilege escalation was something I mentioned.
The only time I've ever had a problem like this (that I remember), it
was bum memory. A full memtest made it clear that I had a problem, and
where the problem was.

Don Vito Martinelli wrote:
> David H Durgee wrote:
>> Don Vito Martinelli wrote:
>>> David H Durgee wrote:
>>>> I just experienced something I had never seen before with Firefox.
>>>> I am running Firefox 115.0.2+linuxmint1+una here on linux mint 20.3
>>>> with all current updates applied.
>>>>
>>>> Earlier today I started getting messages in Firefox about a part of
>>>> the tab crashing and asking to file an error report.  After
>>>> encountering a few of these messages I closed Firefox to restart it
>>>> in hopes of correcting the problem.  Instead I found I could not
>>>> restart Firefox as I was getting segfaults.  I finally used synaptic
>>>> to reinstall Firefox. After this Firefox is now working properly.
>>>>
>>>> Any idea what happened and how to avoid it in the future?  I seem to
>>>> recall seeing some content on one of the websites I use Firefox for
>>>> being gone when I reinstalled and reloaded.  Is it possible that a
>>>> hack against Firefox was embedded in the content that is now gone?
>>>>
>>>> I use Firefox to deal with websites that refuse to work with
>>>> SeaMonkey and use Chromium to address those few that will not work
>>>> with either.
>>>>
>>>> Dave
>>>
>>> An alternative hypothesis would be something along the lines of a
>>> hardware error corrupting your Firefox executable.
>>> Whatever it is, it's ugly.  A Firefox hack would have to be tailored
>>> to (your distribution of) Linux along with some privilege escalation.
>>>
>>> Not strictly relevant, but I have an
>>> /etc/firefox/policies/policies.json which allows me to set various
>>> options for all profiles, one of those is
>>> "DisableAppUpdate": true
>>> The point of that one is that the Package manager for the
>>> distribution is the only process I permit to update Firefox.
>>> about:policies lists the options, and it's probably about time I
>>> checked for new ones.
>>
>> The Firefox executable files are owned by root and only have r-x
>> permission for anyone else, so unless I am mistaken corruption would
>> have to have involved privilege escalation.
>>
>> I update Firefox via mint's update manager, so it isn't be handled by
>> Firefox here either.
>>
>> Linux mint is based on Ubuntu and in many cases if it impacts Ubuntu
>> it impacts mint as well.
>>
>> It is definitely ugly and I hope to avoid a repetition if possible.
>>
>> Dave
>
> Yes, and privilege escalation was something I mentioned.
> The only time I've ever had a problem like this (that I remember), it
> was bum memory.  A full memtest made it clear that I had a problem, and
> where the problem was.

I might do a memtest later, but I would have to locate it first and
install it. I did check and confirm that smartd completes its
self-tests without any errors.

I have attached a zip of the first tab crash in case it helps.

Dave