[Bug 106582] Re: Firefox DOS (kind of) through bad 'preferred applications' custom mail reader command

[Dak]

actually, i'm pretty sure this isn't a bug in firefox, as such (it'd
probably work in opera aswell).

what i think is happening is this (i don't know what the program that
handles 'mailto' is called, so i'll call it mailhandler).

when you click on mailto:somwhere in firefox, it passes
"mailto:somewhere" to 'mailhandler'.

with the above settings, mailhandler starts 'firefox %s'; i.e., it just
passes 'mailto:somwhere' back to firefox.

having recieved a 'mailto', firefox passes "mailto:somewhere" strait
back to mailhandler, etc etc.

each time the string "mailto:somewhere" is passed back and forth, a new
instance of either firefox or mailhandler is started.

given that, a more effective DOS would be the setting

firefox -safe-mode -new-window %s -new-window %s -new-window %s -new-
window %s

-safe-mode just disables all the extensions (for testing purposes); now,
every time a mailto is clicked, firefox will pass it to mailhandler,
which will make four instances of firefox, each of which will pass the
mailto strait back to mailhandler, and each pass should start 4 more
instances of firefox.

trying this out, it's a pain in the ass to get your computer back.
right-clicking the task-bar and clicking 'close group' meant my CPU and
nearly memory and swap got maxed, and then i kept getting spammed with
'firefox is allready open' messages. 30 seconds of allowing firefox to
continuously re-open resulted in requiring 5 minutes to get my computer
back.

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Firefox DOS (kind of) through bad 'preferred applications' custom mail reader command
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/106582
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