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Firefox suddenly opens about:processes tab and then closes itself

Hello everyone,

yesterday I got quite a scare. While Firefox was open, a new tab briefly appeared showing the page about:processes, and immediately afterwards the browser closed itself on its own.

At the same time, Chrome was open in the background. When I clicked on Chrome, a prompt appeared asking whether I wanted to allow changes to be made to the system (the typical UAC prompt). However, I’m not entirely sure if this was actually triggered by Chrome or possibly by another application.

I clicked “No” on the UAC prompt and immediately unplugged my keyboard. I recently started using an ASUS ROG Falcata, which is connected via USB.

After that, I ran a virus scan with Windows Defender — it didn’t find anything. I also ran AdwCleaner, which also came up clean.

At first, I suspected the ASUS ROG Falcata (I’ve only been using it for a few days), since it’s almost like a small computer itself and can execute macros, patterns, etc. I was worried about a possible firmware bug or something worse. At the moment, I’m honestly hesitant to plug it back in and am using an old Dell keyboard instead.

Importantly, I wasn’t pressing any keys at the time of the incident.

Now I’m quite unsure what could have caused this.

Is there any way to trace this in Firefox (e.g., via logs)?

And is there any (event) log where I could check what triggered the UAC prompt?

One more thing I noticed: I shut down the PC afterward and turned it back on later that evening. Everything booted normally and is still running fine today. However, Firefox updated itself yesterday from version 148.2 to 149. Maybe that was somehow related (though there’s no indication in the Firefox update history that anything failed or similar).

Hello everyone, yesterday I got quite a scare. While Firefox was open, a new tab briefly appeared showing the page about:processes, and immediately afterwards the browser closed itself on its own. At the same time, Chrome was open in the background. When I clicked on Chrome, a prompt appeared asking whether I wanted to allow changes to be made to the system (the typical UAC prompt). However, I’m not entirely sure if this was actually triggered by Chrome or possibly by another application. I clicked “No” on the UAC prompt and immediately unplugged my keyboard. I recently started using an ASUS ROG Falcata, which is connected via USB. After that, I ran a virus scan with Windows Defender — it didn’t find anything. I also ran AdwCleaner, which also came up clean. At first, I suspected the ASUS ROG Falcata (I’ve only been using it for a few days), since it’s almost like a small computer itself and can execute macros, patterns, etc. I was worried about a possible firmware bug or something worse. At the moment, I’m honestly hesitant to plug it back in and am using an old Dell keyboard instead. Importantly, I wasn’t pressing any keys at the time of the incident. Now I’m quite unsure what could have caused this. Is there any way to trace this in Firefox (e.g., via logs)? And is there any (event) log where I could check what triggered the UAC prompt? One more thing I noticed: I shut down the PC afterward and turned it back on later that evening. Everything booted normally and is still running fine today. However, Firefox updated itself yesterday from version 148.2 to 149. Maybe that was somehow related (though there’s no indication in the Firefox update history that anything failed or similar).

All Replies (2)

Hi guys, does really no one have any idea what could have caused this?

Hi

The about:processes page is Firefox’s internal Task Manager. It is usually triggered by the shortcut Shift + Esc. When Firefox performs a major version update, it occasionally needs to restart to apply changes to the core engine.

You can actually check what program asked for permission using the Windows Event Viewer (Win + R and type eventvwr.msc)

Your Keyboard have Touch Panel? maybe trigger that shortcut.

The UAC prompt was likely just the "finishing move" of an updater trying to write to your system

Is it safe? Yes. If the scans are clean and the behavior hasn't repeated since the update finished, you’re likely in the clear..

Tanya soalan

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