[bug]: Firefox ESR makes requests to mozilla services and advertisers, leaking environment information like dns config, ip info, user-agent, OS

[gStart9]

Prerequisites

• I have searched for existing issues that already report this problem.

Server Hardware

DIY x86_64 proxmox VM

StartOS Version

0344

Client OS

Linux

Client OS Version

0344

Browser

Other

Browser Version

Firefox ESR

Current Behavior

A DIY-StartOS-on-proxmox user who uses pi-hole for DNS reported that StartOS is making requests to these sites:

detectportal.firefox.com
ipv4only.arpa
partnerprogramm.otto.de
www.amazon.de
contile.services.mozilla.com
community-registry.start9.com
registry.start9.com
autopush.prod.mozaws.net
push.services.mozilla.com

Proxmox by default is configured to connect a display, which explains why firefox is running. The user shut down all services, and it continued. It only stopped when he disconnected the virtual display in proxmox (so firefox didn't start).

Expected Behavior

All programs and services on StartOS are expected to not call home and unnecessarily leak information about users and their servers.

Steps to Reproduce

Connect a display to StartOS and boot it.
Intercept and log its DNS queries.

Anything else?

At this point it may be prudent to ditch firefox entirely and use Librewolf. The defaults are 1000% better for privacy, though we still need to make sure it doesn't call home to mozilla services like firefox does. Worst case scenario, Librewolf calls mozilla services but not Advertisers who pay mozilla like amazon.

[kn0wmad]

Linking #2069