cck2 Autoconfig doesn't work with Firefox 62.0.3

Hi Frank,

We've been previously using this to manage the our Firefox browsers as well. However, this doesn't look to be working anymore with the regular release of Firefox.

See the blog post linked regarding CCK2 and Firefox 62: [https://mike.kaply.com/](link URL)

Specifically here:

CCK2 uses AutoConfig as the underlying technology to customize Firefox. We currently have plans to sandbox AutoConfig on Rapid Release starting with Firefox 62. This will mean the CCK2 will definitely not work with Rapid Release starting with Firefox 62. On the ESR, I plan to keep CCK2 working, but I will not be implementing any new features except as they relate to making it easier to migrate to the policy manager. One example of that is providing the ability to remove all bookmarks added by CCK2. Once Firefox 52 is out of support, I will probably migrate CCK2 to use the policy manager internally. To enable that, we are investigating allow policies to be specified via AutoConfig as JSON files.

It's possible it may work with Firefox ESR but during my initial testing it wasn't working either. I haven't had a chance to test it but it looks like the option going forward is to use policies.json: [https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/customizing-firefox-using-policiesjson](link URL)

Hi Ryan,
thanks for your posting.
That's quite unfortunately for me. So i must look if i can do this with the policies via json.

Bite the bullet and use the Firefox standard method.

The autoconfig files generated by the CCK2 plugin do continue to work with Firefox 62.0.3, but you have to make a tweak.

In Contents/Resources/defaults/pref/autoconfig.js, you must add a new line to the beginning of the file:

pref("general.config.sandbox_enabled", false);

That should get things working for now. But you should definitely be looking at the newer methods (json and config profile) supported by current and future releases of Firefox so that you are ready to switch if/when autoconfig breaks.

While it is entirely possible to create the policies.json file by hand, there is this extension that should make it a little easier and allow you to export/save your config: [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/enterprise-policy-generator/](link URL)

If it were me, I'd consider skipping the intermediate step of dealing with policies.json, and jump all the way to using configuration profiles, like with most other preference management on the Mac. This means waiting for the next release, but in the meantime autoconfig can still be made to work.

Does Firefox still require the managed settings to be placed within the .app itself? Or is there now a better external way of doing this?
I gave up trying to manage it because of this, just wasn't worth the effort when every update or reinstallation effectively broke it!

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/enterprise-policy-generator/

^ to link above ... also

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/deploying-firefox-customizations-macos

https://github.com/neilmartin83/autopkg-recipes/blob/master/Mozilla/FirefoxPolicies.pkg.recipe

MacAdmins Slack; Firefox channel
Mike Kaply is active participant

Posted: 16.10.18 at 7:16 PM by gregneagle If it were me, I'd consider skipping the intermediate step of dealing with policies.json, and jump all the way to using configuration profiles, like with most other preference management on the Mac. This means waiting for the next release, but in the meantime autoconfig can still be made to work.

Unfortunately acutally we can't use configuration profiles because our proxy doesn't support ist.
We're in voting with our colleagues to install a transparent proxy but i think it's gonna be a long, long time :-(

I found the extension "Enterprise Policy Generator" so i configured our policie again and it works fine.

thanks for the tip.

@gregneagle

Question...do you know if version 63 is going to support full management with .mobileconfig profiles? I truly hope so.

Right now I can get the JSON file to do everything I need shy of one thing...I need to deploy a root certificate with Firefox and have It be imported into the browser. AFAIK, Firefox doesn’t use the Mac’s keychain.

Rumor mill says that 63 can import from but not use the keychain. In your travels have you seen any direction on techniques for management for it or any builds or betas with documentation on using such techniques?

I only know that Firefox configuration via standard macOS defaults/preferences is slated for a future release. Not sure if that's 63 or 64. I also know work is being done on some sort of keychain support, but I do not know the details. Your best bet is to start testing the betas.

https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/63.0b14/mac/en-US/Firefox%2063.0b14.dmg

https://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-beta-latest&os=osx&lang=en-US

Thanks for the tip policies.json - it works very fine.