Basilisk is not associated with Firefox at all, and is written by one person (Moonchild) with dubious motivations. Unfortunately, you installed that software, and we can't do anything about it. You can change your Firefox account password, and then I strongly suggest only using Firefox going forward, not a weird clone.

Hi, Sorry to hear of your lose of data it unfortunately is back to you. Mozilla has made the Source Code for Firefox freely available for all to use and to develop with. Open Source.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox

Mozilla does not award permissions or anything else as these or you are able to make a browser if you so wish to.

Yes I would guess that Palemoon should tell you it uses Firefox Sync asn you need to make a other account. But Mozilla has no control over what others do with Open Source Code.

In no way does Sync replace using the appropriate tool called a backup :

• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles
• https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/export-firefox-bookmarks-to-backup-or-transfer

Please let us know if this solved your issue or if need further assistance.

https://www.howtogeek.com/335712/update-why-you-shouldnt-use-waterfox-pale-moon-or-basilisk/

vsrawat said

Last month I heard about basilisk browser and had installed it. Not used it much till now. Today I went to use it for some reason, I went to preferences and saw sync and synced that using same username pwd that I put in several places. It was my almost first use of basilisk and I found that basilisk had downloaded everything that I had saved in ff sync. Normally it should not have found anything in basilisk sync as it was my first use. Asking on palemoon's basilisk forum, they did confirm that they are using ff sync and even writing back to it? As ff is now on web something version, several addons that still work in other ff clones are not working in ff, and what is working in ff would not work in other clone browsers, so how does syncing and writing back to ff sync had destroyed my years of saved data to ff sync? When I said this on basilisk form, they say "You should have use some brain and have created a different basilisk sync account". So it was put on my head, whereas they never told that they are downloading and writing back to my ff sync and that I can create a different basilisk sync. My question to you is - How can you authorize basilisk or chrome or ie or Edge or opera or anyone to access and read and write to my ff sync. I trusted ff only and gave my personal data in your custody. And you have distributed it to every one so that they can write back to it and destroy my data? the discussion that occurred there can be seen here. https://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=61&t=19851&p=147159#p147159 I never expected such behavior from ff. :-( Please stop ANYONE AND EVERYONE from reading and syncing to my ff sync data. I trust you and not them. Thanks.

The v2018.07.18 of Basilisk added the Sync feature to Basilisk. The v2018.06.01 and earlier builds didn't have Sync listed in Preferences. My first version of Basilisk was the v2018.04.27 build, which I have rarely used but have used it some in the weeks after I first installed it.

See the screenshot that I uploaded. It says Connect with a Firefox Account and offers a Create Account and Sign In.

I don't think your "first use" was actually when you initially installed Basilisk, but rather when you first saw that Sync was added to the Preferences panel in Basilisk; sometime after after the July 18th release date or update (depending upon what the original installation date of Basilisk is). about:preferences#advanced > Updates will show the first version you installed.

IMO, connecting to your existing Firefox Account was a "user error". You should have created a new "Firefox" Account for use with Basilisk builds exclusively (and maybe with pre-Quantum Firefox builds if you happen to be using one, as I do - although I don't need Sync).

That said, I am not impressed with the answer that Moonchild gave you in that Basilisk support thread. I think he was too hard on you, and maybe Mozilla should require that Preferences > Sync panel to be a little different in 3rd party builds from what Firefox used in its official builds of Firefox of that era. But it is what it is.

But the bottom line is that you screwed up by connecting to an existing Firefox Account and co-mingling your data with two different era's of Firefox builds. And as far as a 3rd party build (based upon Firefox code) connecting to a Firefox Account, I don't see a problem with that. Your data is still secure; you chose to share it with Basilisk when you connected to your Firefox Account. (And considering that the main reason people go for Basilisk over Firefox Quantum is to keep the old UI, features, and add-ons' "somebody" didn't have their mind in gear when they connected to Sync which was being used with a Quantum version.)

No one except for you will ever have access to your personal data; Sync has at least 2 encryption keys and a 3rd for log in that only you will ever see and have use of, those "keys" remain solely on your devices and with 64-characters. A hacker would need something like IBM Watson to try to hack into your Sync data stream and be able to get more that an decipherable "blob".

Basilisk installer I had originally downloaded is named basilisk-latest.win64.installer_v2018.06.01.exe and has date 06/20/2018 appearing in windows explorer so I guess 20 June was the date when I had downloaded and installed that.

Then after, as per enclosed screenshot, I ran basilisk on 31 July only, and every time I ran it checked for updates, but the basilisk UPDATE screenshot is showing "pending", so I guess nothing was actually installed.

You said "v2018.06.01 and earlier builds didn't have Sync listed in Preferences" and it was added on v2018.07.18", so my v2018.06.01 first install build must not have had sync.

if all updates were pending and nothing new was actually installed, then I am puzzled how the sync came to my basilisk, UNLESS they have removed some installed updates from showing up in update history, for whatever reason.

This doesn't require any action really, I thought I should fill in the mentioned data.

Thanks.

One last question -

When some device connects to ff sync, you receive all the information like os name, bit, browser name, bit, and what not.

So, you must have become aware that a BASILISK is requesting to sync to ff sync.

Do you still allow new devices to sync when the browser is not ff but is basilisk, knowing well that most of the latest data in my ff v60 is not usable for other browser?

I think that is where ff went wrong. You should not have allowed devices to sync to ff sync "WHEN THE BROWSER IS NOT FIREFOX"

or did basilisk camouflaged as ff and sent you information while connecting to ff sync that it is not basilisk but it firefox? That is outright cheating by them.

I have unsynced basilisk so no new damage or leakage will happen to my data, I don't know what they wrote in my ff sync spoiling my years of saved data.

if so, then tomorrow ie or edge or opera or comado or safari will use the same open source and can get ff users data, posing as firefox. it is horrifying.

The question is closed from my side, but the answers are not satisfactory. All I say that you should not allow non-ff (or your allowed group) to sync with ff sync.

Please mark the question close after making any last comments if you have any.

Thanks.

That screenshot lends me to think that there is an error in Basilisk; there shouldn't be that many "Install Pending" message, all with the same time. Plus the original installation of the v2018.06.01 version isn't listed. see my screenshot - original installation 05-08-2018 and 2 updated versions installed

I didn't see that Sync was even available in Basilisk until I read this thread and then opened Basilisk to discover that I still had the v2018.06.01 version. Then I did an update manually thru Help > About to get the latest version; then I saw Sync in Preferences with v2018.07.18. But I don't really use Basilisk, I installed it to check it out and to see what "improvement" it might have for me in the long term over using Quantum. And I don't use Quantum for much of anything, either; I am "playing with" Quantum, too. Even after 4 version updates to Quantum there are still too many add-on API's missing vs. what the Legacy extensions provided.

Currently I use 3 different versions of Firefox everyday, switching between them frequently depending upon what I am doing at the time. But the version I use most of the day is an ancient ESR version from May 2015, with the 8 security updates that the ESR versions get; so considered it an April 2016 version as far was security fixes go.

As far as Firefox or Basilisk "cheating users"; they are all Gecko-based browsers which are very compatible, with Basilisk being based upon older pre-Quantum code. It seems to be following the rules that Mozilla has set forth regarding "branding" and other changes. As far as including Firefox Sync in Basilisk, that came as a small surprise to me but not extraordinary. As long as the Sync server recognizes the older Sync engine versions on the server and continues to work there shouldn't be any problems - as long as the user doesn't use Sync as you did, mixing (pre-Quantum) Australis and Quantum Gecko builds in Sync.

As far as using ie or edge or opera or comado or safari with Sync - ain't gonna happen. There is absolutely no compatibility with the Trident / WebKit / Blink based web browsers; the data file types just aren't used by Mozilla or Gecko-based browsers.

Thanks for taking time to reply.

Basilisk using ff sync will come under "PHISING" by all definitions, because they are presenting with a fake page where the user feels it is the page that he visits everyday so he mechanically puts his username and password.

Basilisk has no business accessing or downloading or changing or using ff data saved by a user for ff.

If I remember correctly, ff has changed sync engine or site or something in sync once, seems it is time they change it again to protect the users trusting Mozilla.

Please mark it closed.

Thanks.