SSLPersonas

A Firefox add-on that uses Firefox themes to visualize the SSL status of a website

What it does

SSLPersonas changes Firefox's theme according to the security status of the currently opened web site. It uses Lightweight Themes that ship with the add-on.

There are currently 5 different modes (ordered by security level starting with the most secure):

• Extended Validation: A green theme appears whenever a site uses a valid certificate that includes additional information about the owner

• Standard Validation: A blue theme is shown whenever site use standard certificates. Secure - no more, no less.

• Mixed Content: Some web sites generally use SSL encrypted connections, but request some unencrypted content. Whenever this is the case, a purple theme is presented to the user.

• Unencrypted Connection: Web sites that use the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), trigger a red theme. Many sites do not have certificates. SSLPersonas informs the user about this deficiency and maybe we can persuade web admins to set up a certficate - it's not that difficult.

• Normal window: Firefox's default theme is used for content that is neither loaded via HTTP nor HTTPS, e.g. through the file:// protocol.

Running and Packaging the Add-On

In order to generate an installable Firefox JetPack Add-On (restartless), using the Firefox Add-On SDK is recommendable. Before using the commands below, make sure to activate the plugin in your console/terminal/shell.

Run

$ cfx run

initializes a fresh browser instance. Only SSLPersonas is installed to test.

$ cfx run --profiledir /path/to/some/writable/directory

lets you persist the themes etc.

Packaging

$ cfx xpi

generates a packaged .xpi file named sslpersonas.xpi

Testing

$ cfx test    

performs a set of tests defined in /test/test-main.js

Credits

SSLPersonas was made by Tobi Stockinger. It would not have come into this world without:

People

• Max-Emanuel Maurer
• Alexander De Luca
• Martin Esche

Software

• jQuery
• Mozilla Firefox Add-On SDK