NoScript goes malware?

[J Arcane]

It seems a bit of a war is brewing (http://adblockplus.org/blog/attention-noscript-users) between Adblock Plus and NoScript.

What followed was a small war — the website would add various tricks to prevent Adblock Plus with EasyList from blocking ads, EasyList kept adjusting filters. Then, a week ago a new NoScript version was released. A few days later I noticed first bug reports — apparently, Adblock Plus “glitches” were observed with this NoScript version, especially around NoScript’s domains (but not only those). When I investigated this issue I couldn’t believe my eyes. NoScript was extended by a piece of obfuscated (!) code to specifically target Adblock Plus and disable parts of its functionality. The issues caused by this manipulation were declared as “compatibility issues” in the NoScript forum, even now I still didn’t see any official admission of crippling Adblock Plus. Clearly, NoScript is moving from the gray area of adware into dark black area of scareware, making money at user’s expense at any cost.

I personally found NoScript far too crippling to be useful, so I never used it for very long, but this is some pretty shady shit.

[Disgustipated]

I think this is a bit overblown, and I'm sure it'll die down.

[Shadowstorm]

No add-on should be fucking with other add-ons. Isn't that a violation of some policy over there at Mozilla?

I went to noscript.net, and indeed, there are advertisements all over the place, complete with a Paypal donation button. NoScript essentially forced Adblock Plus to whitelist its own site. Now I know why the NoScript updates were so artificially frequent this past week.

That's pretty fucking low.

[Shadowstorm]

An update to NoScript was just released here in my Firefox. The extension's author explains on the website:

Why such a tight release schedule? Version 1.9.2.6 (http://noscript.net/changelog#1.9.2.6) automatically and permanently removes the cotroversial NoScript Development Support Filterset (http://noscript.net/faq#qa3_21) deployed with NoScript 1.9.2.4. I sincerely apologize with those ABP users who missed the information about it given on the AMO install page (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/722/), on this site's install page, on this very release note page and in the FAQ.

Not including a prompt asking for permission beforehand from the start has been a very bad omission, and I want all the ABP users who felt betrayed to know how much I'm sorry for that. As a sign of good will, current NoScript 1.9.2.6 completely removes the filterset itself, if found there, on startup with no questions asked. Thanks for your patience.
-- Giorgio

[muddi900]

An update to NoScript was just released here in my Firefox. The extension's author explains on the website:

I believe this is what might have gone through his mind:

"Oh fuck!"

[cp#]

This whole thing was FUD from the start

[PathMaster]

NoScript was not the only party to blame. AdBlock played dirty as well. At least according to Ars.