Perspectives

Connect securely to https websites by checking certificates with network notaries.

Perspectives is a browser extension that helps to verify whether your connection to any web site really is secure. It does this by checking the connection certificate with multiple observers hosted around the world. For more information see: http://www.perspectives-project.org.

Install

You can install Perspectives for Firefox or SeaMonkey at addons.mozilla.org. Future support for other browsers is also planned.

Contact

You can contact the developers or post questions for discussion on the Perspectives Dev newsgroup:

• https://groups.google.com/group/perspectives-dev
• perspectives-dev@googlegroups.com

You can file bugs and send pull requests through GitHub:

• https://github.com/danwent/Perspectives

Translate

We warmly welcome anyone willing to help translate Perspectives. Please see the translation doc for instructions.

Develop

This README explains how to work with Perspectives code.

Requirements

• a POSIX command line environment
• make
• zip

Optional (but strongly recommended!):

• python and the python 'lxml' library (to run the build tests)

Building

To build, just type make (assuming of course you have make installed!). This will create a file called 'Perspectives.xpi'.

Installing local builds

You can install Perspectives in Firefox in many ways:

• Using Menu -> Add-ons -> Extensions -> (Tools icon) -> Install Add-On From File and opening the Perspectives.xpi file.
• Drag Perspectives.xpi into your browser
• Use make install-fx from the command line to build and install in a single step. This assumes Firefox exists in your path.

Debugging

To debug the extension:

• Download the latest Firefox.
  • The latest versions usually come with better integration of debugging tools.
• Start your new browser with firefox -P dev -no-remote -purgecaches &
  • You should see the profile manager on the first start which creates a new profile called "dev".
  • For further information see MDN - Setting up extension development environment.
• In ~/.mozilla/firefox/r4nd0m5tr.dev/extensions create a file called perspectives@cmu.edu and enter the text Path_to_your_Perspectives_clone/plugin/ (where you cloned the git repo to).
  • This enables you to see changes without having to rebuild with make everytime.
  • Unfortunately you still have to restart the browser because Perspectives is not yet a "restartless extensions" (see issue #76).
• Enter about:config in the location bar and set the following variables:
  • devtools.debugger.remote-enabled = true
  • devtools.chrome.enabled = true
  • This enables you to use the "Browser Toolbox" (debugger).
  • For further information again see MDN - Setting up extension development environment.
• Restart the browser and open Menu -> Developer -> Browser Toolbox -> Ok -> Debugger
  • Search for the file you want to debug (e.g. notaries.js).
  • Search for the code line you want to debug and set a breakpoint.
• Edit the d_print_flags in plugin/chrome/content/common.js if you like to see some useful logs.
• Optional tips if you want speed-up development a bit:
  • If you just need console logs use Menu -> Developer -> Browser Console (Ctrl + Shift + J) instead of the "Browser Toolbox". The plain console loads a little faster (Note: "Browser Console" is not the standard "Javascript Console").
  • Use the debugger keyword in Javascript to make the debugger automatically jump to the file and codeline. You need to have "Browser Toolbox" already open though!
  • You can also move the Developer menu into the toolbar to skip one menu step.

Test

To test Perspectives:

• Use make test to build Perspectives.xpi, or make test install-fx to build and install all in one step (this assumes Firefox exists in your path).
• Install the plugin and restart the browser.
• Open the following URL: chrome://perspectives/content/test/test.html
• Press the 'Run Tests' button. Test results will be displayed on the page.
• Optional: If you want to run the testcases without chrome privileges (i.e. without reinstalling) follow the instruction in issue #130 - Extract test cases which require no chrome privileges.
• The file test/Manual Test Cases.txt has lists of other tests to run through when doing a full test pass.

Some tests are performed at build time - e.g. checking localization files for the correct format and contents. All tests of the javascript code are run inside the extension - for security reasons they must be installed along with other extension files.

If you have ideas for further tests please let us know!