CCleaner wipes Firefox extension settings

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Firefox users beware: CCleaner wipes Firefox extension settings by default
by Martin Brinkmann | August 03, 2020

 
Firefox users who run the temporary file cleaner CCleaner on their systems may have noticed that extension settings are removed after running the program. The issue affects all recent versions of CCleaner and devices with Firefox 79 or newer installed.

What makes the issue particularly troublesome is that Firefox users informed Piriform, the maker of CCleaner, about the issue on July 1 when Firefox 79 was released to the Beta channel. Firefox 79 Stable was released on July 29, 2020 and users started to experience the issue from that day forward.
…
CCleaner users could exclude Firefox from being cleaned as well until the issue is resolved.

CCleaner has been flagged as a potentially unwanted software by Microsoft Defender recently because of its bundling of other software offers in its installer.
…
CCleaner is a controversial tool… [that’s] had its fair share of privacy-related issues in the past.

 
Read the full article here

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Lori, Elly, Kathy Stevens, geekdom, satrow

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Replace CCleaner with ccPortable.

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ccPortable is still CCleaner!

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satrow

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Not exactly. ccPortable is a tweaked CCleaner free. More secure, more private, no bloat…

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Same default checkboxes = same problem as above.

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Kirsty

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Though in this instance, you might be inadvertently correct. I really don’t have the time or inclination to check: Comment by ‘nico’ on the Ghacks story

Nico said on August 3, 2020 at 11:36 am

Exclude1=PATH|%AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\*\|*.sqlite-shm;*.sqlite-wal||0|0|24

Has to be inserted in the ‘ccleaner.ini’ file.
This file is present in the program folder of the portable CCleaner version
and gets created in the program folder of the installer version only after you check “save settings to .ini file”
Otherwise the settings are in the Windows registry.

I tried adding it via the dialogue in the program itself, but that obviously didn’t work.

https://community.ccleaner.com/topic/58613-problem-with-firefox-79/

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ccPortable is a tweaked CCleaner free. More secure, more private, no bloat…

What’s more secure or more private about it?

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Microfix

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In first Avast doesn’t harvest users data as ccPortable doesn’t have any connections with Avast.

Sometimes, great software can fall out of grace with its users, often due to bad decisions (or perceived bad decisions) by its authors.

A classic example is Piriform’s CCleaner. First launched in 2004, it was a wildly popular system cleaner, trusted by millions of PC users as safe, effective, and free. For years it was on most must-have-utilities lists.

But in 2017, things went seriously wrong. Avast acquired Piriform — and soon after, the installation app was injected with the Floxif Trojan. The infection lasted over a month and reportedly affected over 2 million PCs and servers. The attack was apparently highly sophisticated, and it was especially embarrassing for one of the leading anti-malware companies — Avast.

Then, in 2018, CCleaner stumbled twice. First, customers discovered that Piriform/Avast was collecting user data (more info). Next, users started posting complaints that CCleaner was installing Avast Antivirus without their permission…

https://www.askwoody.com/askwoody-newsletter-alerts/microsoft-finally-got-onedrive-right/#best-utilities-0

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Please see Options, About, License Agreement in ccPortable, then click the link at “In this Agreement, “Vendor” means the entity identified here as providing the Solution to you;”, then check the Avast (CCleaner) Privacy Policy which includes, “7.2 We reserve the right to store and use the information collected by our software and to share such information among the Avast Group to improve our current and future products and services, to help us develop new products and services, and to better understand the behaviour of our users.”

Also see Options, Privacy in ccPortable which has “Help improve CCleaner by sending anonymous usage data”; which is identical to the same option in CCleaner.

There is zero difference between ccPortable and CCleaner in terms of security or privacy.

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Microfix

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What the EULA says and what the program actually does are distinct things. The argument you are making is akin to saying that Windows 10 anti-telemetry programs like ShutUp10 don’t work because the Windows EULA still says they may collect your data, and because the options within Windows to turn on full telemetry are still there. ShutUp10 disables the telemetry, but it cannot alter a legal agreement to which it is not a party, including the one between the PC owner and Microsoft. Indeed, MS does still have the permission it granted itself to take all of your data even after you install ShutUp10… but permission and ability to actually do something are not the same.

The same is apparently true of the portable version of CCleaner, which was not made portable by Avast, but by a third party. The portable apps version apparently downloads CCleaner from an approved source at installation time, and applies the tweaks to it at that time. It evidently does not change the menus of CCleaner, nor does it change the EULA you must accept to use CCleaner (to try do that would be fraudulent).  Avast still has permission you granted it to plunder your data, but it no longer (if the program works as reported) has the ability to do so, permission or not.

That’s assuming the program works as reported. I don’t have any experience with it.

Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)

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Alex5723

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The EULA link shows that it’s nonsense to say that “ccPortable doesn’t have any connections with Avast”.

What tweaks do you imagine are applied to CCleaner in ccPortable?

PortableApps.com (the “developer”) and other sites which offer the ccPortable download don’t claim to offer any tweaks at all, other than being able to run without installation (just like the portable version from Avast/Piriform).

That’s assuming the program works as reported.

It’s a huge assumption based on zero evidence to say that ccPortable doesn’t communicate with Avast.

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Anyone know which of the CCleaner Firefox check boxes is ‘responsible’ for these newly created Mozilla files? Last time I checked a default CCleaner there were multiple check boxes for various sections under Firefox.

ESR users, stop looking and get back to work.

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Kirsty

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Ok, talks to himself – Firefox internet cache check box: Guenni points back to techdows for details:

As CCleaner cleans Firefox Internet cache by default (unless you uncheck it in the CCleaner UI for Firefox under Applications tab), it is now deleting the last two files mentioned above.

You need to exclude Storage-sync-v2-sqlite-shm and storage-sync-v2.sqlite-wal files from cleaning. You can say this to CCleaner by adding them here -> CCleaner > Options > Excludes > Add > File, paste the following path

Exclude1=PATH|%AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\*\|*.sqlite-shm;*.sqlite-wal||0|0|24

The above is but a coupla snippets, please study the referred sites for full details.

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Microfix, woody, Kirsty, Elly, geekdom

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Avast owns CCleaner instead of Piriform, Kirsty

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My understanding is that Avast acquired Piriform.

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Microfix, SueW, Charlie, MrChaz

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Correct, 2017. However, the Ccleaner website still points to Piriform Limited, i.e.:

© Copyright 2005-2020 Piriform Ltd – All rights reserved
CCleaner, Defraggler, Recuva and Speccy are all registered trademarks of Piriform Ltd.

In the Avast acquisition statement:

We will maintain the Piriform products separately from our current Avast optimization portfolio, and Piriform customers can rest assured they will continue to get the attention and service they are used to.

…Which goes to explain Martin’s quote (from above):

Kirsty wrote:

What makes the issue particularly troublesome is that Firefox users informed Piriform, the maker of CCleaner, about the issue on July 1

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woody, satrow, Elly

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CCleaner has grown increasingly wobbly. There are other software packages that perform the same tasks, but without the system drama, trauma, and red flags.

On permanent hiatus {with backup and coffee}
offline▸ Win10Pro 2004.19041.572 x64 i3-3220 RAM8GB HDD Firefox83.0b3 WindowsDefender
offline▸ Acer TravelMate P215-52 RAM8GB Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1265 x64 i5-10210U SSD Firefox106.0 MicrosoftDefender
online▸ Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1992 x64 i5-9400 RAM16GB HDD Firefox116.0b3 MicrosoftDefender

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Charlie

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CCleaner haters have increased. There are other software packages that perform similar tasks, but without the pressure (yet) from the haters.

When they become more popular they’ll also become more pressured and targeted. Step up and take your turn in the spotlight, folks.

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If anyone is a believer in ‘smart’ cleaners, it’s not entirely true in my experience, as pre-emptive checks are required prior to executing these so called ‘cleaners’ that can do more harm than good for a system.

A few years ago, Wise Diskcleaner caused me problems on windows 7, due to the defaults removing system integrated my documents /pictures on one of the tabs, that inevitably caused sfc errors, (not so wise on my part) Once bitten..

illegitimi Non Carborundum

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I have CCleaner Free V5.46.6652 (64 bit) and I don’t have nor have I ever had any problems with it.  They have recently been sending nags to update it to a “newer and better” version, but I won’t do it.  What I have does what I want it to, and when I say to do it.  Here’s a snip of my Firefox settings:

CCleaner is a tool that can be dangerous in the wrong hands.

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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SueW, Cybertooth

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I forgot to mention that I am using Firefox 79 too.

Even astrophysicist Carl Sagan when speaking astronomically used Billions, not Trillions.

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Kirsty

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Avast is a data broker.  No?  Go to their corporate site and read for a while; kinda like Google’s browser based user ad data collection software, aka Chrome.  Their description, not mine.

CCleaner, owned by Avast through Piriform was good for a long time, it always sent data, especially if you chose the real time monitoring option which tended to dramatically slow everything (Duh?!)  Portable versions did too but both could be blocked by a firewall.  At some point, neither version would work if they couldn’t go online, so  I quit using CC and learned how to do all the stuff it does.  Thanks, Piriform!   Really not much point in cleaners today.  Bleachbit’s OK if you must.

If you don’t want your devices to be unintended ad servers, learn to play the game or be the game.  A few years ago data collection wasn’t the big deal it is today, now so many companies use sloppy data collection as their business model there’s no way all that info can be kept secure much less private.

This FF thing is a glitch, one that was uncovered a while ago but continued.  Piriform has blundered similarly before and done nothing until the press blew up.  Sloppy.

🙂

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Cybertooth

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[bratkinson]

I’ve been a regular user of JV16 for registry cleanup functions for many years (especially for leftover garbage from normally-uninstalled programs – it seems to be getting worse each day!)  Then, in January, they came out with a ‘new improved’ version that I foolishly paid for as it had perhaps 10% of the functions/capabilities in the old version!  So I reinstalled the old version in Program Files to avoid conflict with the new version in Program Files (x86).  Both versions work just fine, but the new one seems like a waste of time in my opinion.

About 6-7 months ago, I decided I needed to do some registry cleanup on my laptop as I’ve been busy removing useless Windows 10 bloatware there, too.  So I decided to give the freebie CCleaner a try.  I was pleased with the results but did discover it had reset the Firefox default ZOOM setting back to 100%.  A couple of other ‘minor’ settings were set back to default values as well.  Both were easily fixed.

So I decided to give it a try on my main computer.  I expected the hit to Firefox and easily corrected both problems.  But the real surprise was in Thunderbird!  It had cleaned out my email password and reset a couple of things as well.  At least it didn’t wipe out the 30+ filters I’ve created to eliminate all the SPAM I’ve been getting these days.

Fortunately, when I decided to run CCleaner again on my main computer, I found where I could individually select which items in Firefox and Thunderbird it cleaned out.  Now I’m a happy camper.

The new, improved, JV16?  Why did I waste my money?  The old one is far better!

• This reply was modified 4 years, 10 months ago by bratkinson.

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Hi,

FYI The original article from Techdows cited as one of the sources for Ghacks article have been updated on 05 August 2020, in particular as follows :

Techdows
CCleaner is wiping Firefox Extensions Settings, how to fix
Last updated on August 5, 2020 By Venkat
—————————————————————
UPDATE August 8, 2020: Piriform has told techdows that the issue will be addressed shortly with an upcoming update.

Re : https://techdows.com/2020/08/fix-ccleaner-wiping-firefox-extensions-settings.html

 

Regards

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SueW

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Hi
FYI Piriform has released a new version of CCleaner 5.70.7909 on 06 August 2020 to include the bug-fix for wiping extension settings in Firefox:

Version History
v5.70.7909 (06 Aug 2020)
Important information for Firefox users

If you use Firefox with a Firefox account, we strongly recommend that you update CCleaner to version 5.70 before cleaning. This version of CCleaner fixes an issue that can cause extension settings to be lost in Firefox.

Important fix for Firefox users

-Fixed a bug where CCleaner could wipe extension settings in Firefox if using a Firefox account

Re : https://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner/version-history

Cheers.

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