How can I disable the blocking of non-essential Flash content in Firefox 51?

2

According to an article I found, Firefox blocks all "non-essential" Flash content by default from version 51. My company uses I/O modules to remotely switch certain devices on and off but unfortunately, these modules use Flash to send commands over a web interface. This means that the new update made it impossible to use them.

Is there a setting in about:config which would allow me to re-enable all Flash content? I am aware of the associated security risks.

Marcell Bernát

Posted 2017-01-30T12:36:58.117

Reputation: 46

Answers

0

Is there a setting in about:config to re-enable all Flash content?

  1. Go to about:config and search for this option "plugin.state.flash"

  2. Change its value to 2, this change set the plugin always active.

    Values for plugin.state.flash:

    0 - Never Active
1 - Ask to Active
2 - Always Active

Note:

  • This has the same effect as setting the plugin "Shockwave Flash" to "Always Activate"

DavidPostill

Posted 2017-01-30T12:36:58.117

Reputation: 118 938

It was already set to 2. I've also tried going into Page Info --> Permissions and setting Adobe Flash to "Allow" instead of the default, but to no avail. – Marcell Bernát – 2017-01-30T13:20:07.097

@bem13 Do you have an example public web page where such content is blocked? – DavidPostill – 2017-01-30T13:21:03.300

I don't, unfortunately. (I could find one with Shodan which uses the default credentials but that wouldn't really count as public ;)) – Marcell Bernát – 2017-01-30T13:24:41.593

@bem13 , if that's the case there must be something else blocking your Flash content: another plugin extension, security software, or perhaps a corporate web proxy server. – Run5k – 2017-02-07T16:25:40.597

@Run5k I'm pretty sure that's not the case. It worked fine in Firefox 50, then stopped working when 51 came out. I downgraded to Firefox 45 (the extended support version) in my Ubuntu virtual machine and it works fine in that. There are no other plugins installed and I doubt it's something in the corporate network as it works fine with older versions. – Marcell Bernát – 2017-02-08T18:53:08.260

Is it possible that your organization is using an outdated version of Flash? Those get disabled by default: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/blocked/ If not, this is a real dilemma. That being said, I hope that your company plans to migrate away from using Flash. There are several compelling reasons why both Chrome and Firefox are gradually eliminating their Flash support, primarily because it has more security holes than a Swiss cheese!

– Run5k – 2017-02-09T00:55:28.467

@Run5k Nope, Flash is the newest version available, I've installed it myself. Unfortunately migrating away from those devices is not really an option at this point. They're installed at remote sites which require special permissions and equipment to access and there are 400+ of them. – Marcell Bernát – 2017-02-10T18:15:17.297

Hmmm... that is definitely a puzzle. It must be some down-in-the-weeds setting within Firefox that is securing the plugins, but only under specific circumstances. I just can't seem to replicate the problem, either at work or on my home network. Sorry that I couldn't help out a bit more. – Run5k – 2017-02-10T18:22:10.310

Asked: 2017-01-30T12:36:58.117

Viewed: 374 times

Active: 2017-01-30T13:05:01.457