Developing Apps For Mozilla's Firefox OS

Non-profit organisation Mozilla recently came up with the Firefox OS, named after its popular internet browser Firefox. The OS has been developed to run on smartphones and tablets and is currently running on the ZTE Open and GeeksPhone Peak+ smartphones. In addition, the OS is also expected to be running on Smart televisions soon. The OS competes with Google’s Android, Apple’s iOS, Microsoft’s Windows Phone and other mobile operating systems like Jolla’s Sailfish OS. It is based entirely on open standards and uses HTML5, JavaScript etc. There are certain resources that you will need in order to develop apps for the Firefox OS. Here are eight that may be of help to you.

- Firefox OS simulator: Use this to test your apps on the OS.

- Boilerplate app: Use this to check the usage of the WebAPI.

- IndexDB: This is how you can store data in the user’s browser.

- App Manifest: This teaches you how to create a manifest file that lets your apps talk to the web browser.

- App Manager: Get in depth control of the debugging and deployment of HTML5 apps.

- You need to make cross domain requests by making the app Privileged (or Certified).

- Firefox OS Style Guide: This is the style guide for the Firefox OS that you can use for colours etc.

- Firefox OS design principles: This is a description of the design philosophy used in the OS.

Author Shivam Kotwalia, CodeKill

12 Penetration Testing Add-Ons For Firefox

Now you can use your Firefox browser as a penetration testing tool with the help of these amazing add ons! Have a look 

Firefox is not popular only for its open source nature but it can also be turned into a very effective penetration testing tool. Mozilla has its own section for add-ons and all of the following are available. Here they are...

1. FoxyProxy Standard: This advance proxy management add-on for the Firefox internet browser supplements the built-in proxy capabilities of Firefox. The add-on switches the user’s internet connection over one or more proxy servers based on the URL patterns and has many other features as well.

2. Firebug: This tool allows the user to debug and edit JavaScript, HTML and CSS live on a webpage and see the changes take effect. The add-on is useful for analysing JavaScript files for XSS vulnerabilities.

3. Web Developer: This add-on helps in penetration testing by adding various web development tools to Firefox.

4. User Agent Switcher: This add-on is useful if you want to spoof your browser while attacking a network. It places a tool bar on the browser that lets you switch between user agent and browser seamlessly.

5. Live HTTP Headers: The add-on displays live headers for each of the HTTP requests and responses on Firefox. It also allows the user to save header information by a click of a button. It is a really helpful tool for penetration testers.

6. Tamper Data: This add-on is quite similar to the one above, but it brings the added header editing capacity to Firefox. The user can view and then modify HTTP and HTTPS headers and post parameters. You can use it for penetration testing for web applications by modifying the POST parameters. It can also be used to make XSS and SQL Injection attacks.

7. Hackbar: This penetration testing tool for Firefox helps the user in testing simple SQL injection and XSS loopholes through Firefox. In addition, the add-on also has encoding and encryption tools, which can help in testing XSS vulnerability using encoded XSS payloads.

8. Websecurify: This add-on can detect most of the common vulnerabilities in any web applications. It is a complete penetration testing tool that can be added to the Firefox brower.

9. Add N Edit Cookies: As the name suggests, this Firefox browser lets the user add or edit the cookies data for the browser. It is quite useful for penetration testing, especially when trying to perform session hijacks.

10. XSS Me: This add-on helps in detecting XSS vulnerabilities in web applications. It scans all the different forms of a web page and then attacks the pages that qualify with a predefined XSS payload.

11. SQL Inject Me: This one helps in finding SQL injection vulnerabilities in web applications. It displays the vulnerabilities in a web application without exploiting them.

12. FlagFox: This browser adds a country’s flag on Firefox and determines where a web server is located. The add-on also has a web server. 

Author : Shivam Kotwalia, CodeKill