<p>After configuring Mozilla Firefox with <ahref="https://codeberg.org/Narsil/user.js/src/branch/main/desktop">Narsil's user.js</a>, according to this guide it's rating changes like so:</p>
<p>Narsil's user.js is a template which aims to provide as much privacy and enhanced security as possible, and to reduce tracking and fingerprinting as much as possible. It's a fork of arkenfox's user.js, which was used in previous versions of this guide. But Narsil's enhance it for maximum privacy and minimizing automatic connections.</p>
<p>For extra privacy & security, disconnect your computer from the internet while following this guide, so that Firefox is unable to phone home by accident.</p>
<p>
Mozilla Firefox has a huge amount of spyware features, but they can all be disabled by using predefined profile settings.
To do this you need to create new Firefox profile:
If you want to enable OCSP, you should also modify these options in the user.js. These settings are disabled in Narsil's user.js
because OCSP is a privacy breach, but it is also a security feature. It works by contacting other servers to verify the authenticity of the address you are connecting to.
<p>Run <code>firefox -no-remote -ProfileManager</code> again and start the profile you created. Delete any others if needed. Check to make sure, after the first start, that another profile which does <i>not</i> use our user.js was not created by Firefox.</p>
<br/>
<p>
We recommend to also check other user.js settings from <i>"arkenfox-user.js docs"</i><sup><ahref="#one">[1]</a></sup> for better understanding
of what the user.js is doing. Note that Narsil's user.js is optimized for the maximum privacy and security, but feel free to adapt it to your needs.
</p>
<h2>Hosts file</h2>
<p>
Narsil's user.js mitigates most Firefox's privacy issues. But there are still two automatic connections that can't be disabled in the user.js settings.
There are two solutions for this (Read Narsil's user.js README) but we will take the easiest path, which makes use of the hosts file. Unlike the other solution, it isn't
overwritten with every Firefox update.
</p>
<br/>
<p>
We will be using <ahref="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MrRawes/firefox-hosts/firefox-hosts/hosts">Mr Rawes hosts</a> which blocks every
connection that Firefox does. Using the user.js, there should be only two automatic connections left. Adding every connection to the hosts file,
even the ones that we've already disabled, does not have
any negative effect and it may help in case you launch Firefox with a profile not using the custom user.js.
<p> This is unnecessary if you used the user.js method, but it's interesting to have this other option.
Important settings are enforced/locked within mozilla.cfg, the major difference with the user.js is that those settings cannot be changed by addons/updates/Firefox or unwanted/accidental
manipulation. To change those settings you can edit the mozilla.cfg.
</p>
<p> We will use a modified mozilla.cfg from <ahref="https://codeberg.org/Narsil/mozilla.cfg/">Narsil</a> which is configured with a strong focus on privacy and security.
Download it in a zip file from <ahref="https://codeberg.org/Narsil/mozilla.cfg/archive/master.zip">here</a> and unzip it.
You need to copy the config folder to the firefox installation path.
<p> This method may be preferable because settings can not be overwritten by addons or normal users, only by users with root privileges. Make sure to read through the
mozilla.cfg to check if the settings suit your usecase, it's optimized for maximum privacy and security.</p>
<li><ahref="https://brainfucksec.github.io/firefox-hardening-guide">Privacy Related "about:config" Tweaks to Firefox</a><ahref="https://web.archive.org/web/20220702153223/https://brainfucksec.github.io/firefox-hardening-guide">[web.archive.org]</a><ahref="https://archive.ph/l9Ldc">[archive.is]</a></li>
If you want to edit this article, or contribute your own article(s), visit us at the git repo on <ahref="https://codeberg.org/shadow/SpywareWatchdog">Codeberg</a>. All contributions must be licensed under the CC0 license to be accepted.
