NoScript 2.1.1.1 cripples Firefox 24 ESR (Linux)

[Kosinski]

For the first time ever, updating Firefox while keeping the same version of NoScript resulted in disaster. In particular, I had NoScript 2.1.1.1 installed, and tried to update Firefox ESR (Linux) from 17.0.11 to 24.2.0.

The result was that Firefox would not load *any* content from the Internet. It didn't even try, as evidenced by both Wireshark and the Firefox Web Console. Apparently, some part of version 2.1.1.1 of NoScript was blocking some crucial function *within* Firefox.

Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any warning about this severe incompatibility.

Updating to NoScript 2.6.8.7 seems to have fixed the problem. And yes, I know 2.1.1.1 is pretty far behind 2.6.8.7, but I am always suspicious of more features being added to software, as it usually adds more bugs as well. It would be nice if NoScript also had a security-fix-only release channel, like Firefox's ESR.

[Giorgio Maone]

Updating to NoScript 2.6.8.7 seems to have fixed the problem. And yes, I know 2.1.1.1 is pretty far behind 2.6.8.7, but I am always suspicious of more features being added to software, as it usually adds more bugs as well. It would be nice if NoScript also had a security-fix-only release channel, like Firefox's ESR.

As you can easily figure out, Firefox 24, coming 7 release numbers after 17, contains many incompatible changes in its internals (and APIs).
NoScript does actually a great job at ensuring backward compatibility and keeping up with Firefox's fast development cycle, but it's impossible for any browser extension, and especially for one as complex as NoScript, to guarantee forward compatibility.