Opt-in activation for plugins

Feature	Status	Lead engineer	QA Lead	Status
Opt-in activation for plugins	Development in progress	Jared Wein	Paul Silaghi	OK

Summary

- Performance: Plugins consume significant resources, both individually (i.e. Java starting because a given page requested it), and in aggregate (i.e. Flash consuming 30% of the CPU because of many ads and movies)
- Security: Plugins are the most common source of user compromise, so not running them by default provides a defense against drive-by attacks, while still enabling them to run on sites where the user desires(YouTube, intranet, whatever).
- Accidental/malicious install: Plugins can be installed without user interaction or consent, causing potential security and stability issues
- Chrome has implemented something similar: http://blog.chromium.org/2011/03/mini-newsletter-from-your-google-chrome.html

Some software installs a plugin the user is not aware of. The first time the plugin is activated by a given page, the user is:
- given a warning or
- plugin is click-to-play until the user actives it
User has an up-to-date version of Flash or some other common plugin
- plugin is click-to-play to reduce resource consumption and risk of zero-day security exploits or
- plugin plays automatically because its popular and considered to be currently safe
User has a vulnerable plugin with a known security issue, but no update available
- User cannot run plugin or
- User can run plugin after scary warning
User has a vulnerable plugin with a known security issue, and an update is available
- User is prompted to update
- User cannot run plugin
- User can run plugin after scary warning to update first
User is tired of always clicking to play a given plugin (i.e. YouTube, or their favorite Java game site)
- A user has clicked on this four times in X days, so automatically enable this plugin on this site until user revokes this decision (about:permissions?) and/or remember decision for Y days after last click
- Jruderman has suggested a context menu instead of a click - this is a mitigation against click jacking. Could provide "Now/Always/Never" choices.

738698 - [meta] Users should have the ability to activate plugins on demand
711552 - Create click to play UI for desktop
737508 - Add the ability to remember plugin-activation settings
730318 - Opt-in activated plugins should use internal APIs to keep track of plugin activation
711618 - implement basic click to play permission model
549697 - Add click-to-start form of disabled plugins
742753 - Click to Play should permit each element
746374 - click-to-play: differentiate by plugin type
754472 - click-to-play: implement multiple plugin doorhanger ui
760625 - use the blocklist to inform click-to-play plugins
752228 - No showing click-to-play doorhanger icon on some pages

Mozilla can remotely configure the user's browser to require click to play for specific plugins that are out-of-date and/or vulnerable.
Ctp Blocklist Proposal