Firefox opened a window that showed the contents of my hard drive and if I clicked on a file it would download it. How can this happen and am in danger?
This happened while logged in to my bank site online. I opened a second window and when I returned to the bank window it showed the folders and files on my hard drive. By copying the URL that showed, closing Firefox, restarting and pasting the URL into the address box it would open that page again. Here's a copy (with a letter modified for security); file:///Users/MortiseMasters/Momasters%20on%20local/Jobs%20completed/ Since this address does not begin with https does it mean my files are not available online for others to access? Or can it be accessed online?
I have never seen this happen before. I pasted the address into Safari and it did not open my Mac hard drive window.
All Replies (6)
Are you saying that the bank's page was replaced with the list of files on your hard drive?
Firefox would not normally open a folder on your hard drive spontaneously. Firefox also ignores links in web pages to folders on your hard drive (assuming the site were able to guess the folder name).
One way this might happen is if you dragged and dropped a local folder from Finder or your desktop onto an open Firefox tab.
Anyway, Firefox doesn't provide a sharing feature for files on your hard drive. There may be add-ons that allow you to share your hard drive with others, but it's definitely not a built-in feature.
As I recall, when I returned to the window that was the bank's page, it displayed my local folder. I would never have guessed Firefox could display and open local folders. I thought anything showing in a browser window was from a web connection source. Apparently not?
Maybe I accidentally dragged a local folder in there as i was leaving the window. I tried it just now and a desktop folder opened in the browser window. When I clicked a file to open it, it "downloaded". Does this mean it copies to the browser app & then copies again to my downloads folder? Does this happen entirely on my system without uploading before downloading?
The part of Firefox that understands how to display a directory of files works both on web or ftp server and on your computer.
Firefox's behavior with local files differs based on the type. For those it can't display, you may be able to open or save them, and in that case they show up in "Downloads". But they aren't leaving your computer. You can test this by breaking your network connection and repeating the action.
Thanks, jscher.
Exact same problem here. I'm sure what happened was that I accidently dragged a file into my FF window.
Is there a way to disable this function in FF?
If not, is it really REALLY true that my files won't end up in somebody's cloud, or be otherwise vulnerable? Never ever EVER? (Can you tell that you're dealing with an ignorant paranoic?)
Thanks for your help!
Hi Ch_H, Firefox's normal security settings prevent web pages from accessing your hard drive, except for files you upload to the site.
Note that plugins (such as Flash) have more privileges and can go beyond what normal web pages can do. I am not familiar with all the details on that.
Because software is imperfect, there is unfortunately no way to guarantee never ever EVER except to disconnect the computer from the internet.
Because software is imperfect, there is unfortunately no way to guarantee never ever EVER except to disconnect the computer from the internet.
I kind of didn't think so... :-) Thanks for the note on plug-ins, esp. Flash. Take care!