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Plugin Container change

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My firewall periodically reports that a Plugin Container for Firefox has changed. I understand that many pieces of software do get updated thru their lifetime without the end0users knowledge.

But I am curios as to how to track what has changed

This is what I'm presented with:

===========

The executable has changed since the last time you used C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugin-container.exe File Version: 18.0.1.4764 File Description: Plugin Container for Firefox File Path: C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugin-container.exe Digital Signature: Mozilla Corporation Process ID: 0xcc8 (Hexadecimal) 3272 (Decimal)

I also have the the type of protocol (Usually TCP) Local address and port & a remote address and port

How can I see what this plugin container does and why has it been updated.

Thank you

My firewall periodically reports that a Plugin Container for Firefox has changed. I understand that many pieces of software do get updated thru their lifetime without the end0users knowledge. But I am curios as to how to track what has changed This is what I'm presented with: ======================= The executable has changed since the last time you used C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugin-container.exe File Version: 18.0.1.4764 File Description: Plugin Container for Firefox File Path: C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\plugin-container.exe Digital Signature: Mozilla Corporation Process ID: 0xcc8 (Hexadecimal) 3272 (Decimal) I also have the the type of protocol (Usually TCP) Local address and port & a remote address and port How can I see what this plugin container does and why has it been updated. Thank you

All Replies (6)

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hello rafael, plugin-container.exe is a part of firefox & used to run plugin content from websites in a separate process for stability purposes. so it might also be updated during regular firefox updates.

What is plugin-container

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Plugin-container_and_out-of-process_plugins

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Mad:

Thank you for the prompt answer, however this did not answer my question. My question in its most basic form is: How can I tell what changed on the plugin container, and what made it change? Was it Flash, was it a new java deployment, was it a video game, was it a virus/trojan?

If go thru the 8 Plugins installed for my firefox, none say that they were updated within the last 36 hours, so why did I get that massage?

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no, as i've said plugin-container.exe is part of the firefox program itself & got updated when you updated to firefox 18.0.1 recently - you can see that in the info notice you received: File Version: 18.0.1.4764. it appears to be digitally signed by mozilla too, so there shouldn't be much to worry about...

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Mad:

I am grateful for your diligence and the expediency of the response.

For the last several versions of Firefox I have seen these and proceeded to allow the changes to go thru the firewall.

Is there a way for the average user to see what and why the plugin container has changed?

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i'm not sure if there even are any substantial updates or if the change is only done to bump the file version... the total list of fixed bugs in firefox 18.0.1 shows several plugin related changes, however it is not in a very user friendly format (probably developers are the core audience for that) & again, i'm not sure if they are even affecting the plugin-container or if they are internal changes to firefox.exe: http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/18.0.1/releasenotes/buglist.html

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Mad:

Again thank you for the time/effort and expertise. I have been a ff user, and will continue being a loyal user. I guess there isn't an answer to what I am looking for.

If there is someone else out there that can answer my question (and add to Mad's vast ff knowledge). I would love to know somewhat of a historic change to the plugin container saga.