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Mozilla Firefox - Security and Privacy

Toggle Java Support

SUMMARY: Disable Java support in Firefox if you are concerned about applet security.

Java Applets are used in many webpages to display charts and graphs, navigational elements, games, or other interactive features. While Java applets are supposedly safer than ActiveX Controls due to a "sandboxing" mechanism that keeps applets from running trusted code or damaging the system, it is possible that this sandbox may have exploitable holes. See Secunia's 7/9/08 Sun Java JDK/JRE Advisory for an example of this.

Because of possible security violations, you may choose to turn off Java support in Mozilla Firefox at the expense of accessing features on certain websites.

1. Click "Tools" - "Options".

2. When the "Options" dialog box appears, click "Content".

3. Check or uncheck "Enable Java" as desired.

4. Click "OK" to close the dialog box.

This tip was written for Mozilla Firefox v3.0.4. Screenshots and instructions for other versions may vary.