Need to use a public computer often? Tired of adding and removing your accounts every day? No problem! FireFlyUSB is a set of scripts that make it extremely easy to take your Firefox profile with you on an USB, to use it on public computers (Linux or Windows) without worrying about exposing your data.
Every time you want to use your Firefox Profile, connect your USB, go to your folder in the public computer, execute FireFly.sh, and open Firefox with FIREFOX.sh. When you are done, execute CLEAN.sh to remove your data from the computer.
Sounds easy right? Let's see how to configure it.
On GitHub, click on Code and then Download ZIP.
Or if you prefer using Git, run: git clone https://github.com/pablogila/FireFlyUSB.git
The first thing is to create your Firefox Profile, with all the accounts, extensions and configurations that you want to carry around. In order to do this, go to the public computer, open a terminal and write:
firefox -P
A window will open, asking you to select a profile. Take a look on the default profile to restore it later; it is usually called default-release. Click on Create profile, click Next, and then type a name for your profile, such as MyFirefoxProfile. Click on Choose folder, and create a folder where you usually work, e.g.,
/home/USER/FOLDER/MyFirefoxProfile/
You will have to copy later the CLEAN.sh, FireFly.sh and FIREFOX.sh scripts to the parent folder, in this case, /home/USER/FOLDER/. Note that if you choose a name other than MyFirefoxProfile, you will need to update it within all the scripts.
Now start customizing your Firefox. Remember to check the Delete cookies and site data when closing Firefox option in the Privacy and Security panel. You can add exceptions to this deletion if you wish. When you are done, close Firefox, compress your MyFirefoxProfile into a MyFirefoxProfile.zip, and copy this zip to your USB.
Notice that, although this guide is written for Linux, the files denoted as *_win are specific for Windows, and can be executed by installing Git Bash on your computer.
If you didn't do it before, copy the CLEAN.sh, FireFly.sh and FIREFOX.sh scripts to the parent folder of your Firefox Profile, in this case, /home/USER/FOLDER/.
You will now modify the FireFly.sh script. You need to write both paths of your zip file, so that when you execute the script, the zip from your USB will copy and extract to the public computer:
cp /USB_PATH/MyFirefoxProfile.zip /PUBLIC_PC_PATH/MyFirefoxProfile.zip
The FireFly.sh script should look somewhat like this:
#!/bin/bash
cp /media/home/USB/FireFly/MyFirefoxProfile.zip /home/USER/FOLDER/MyFirefoxProfile.zip
unzip MyFirefoxProfile.zip
cp /media/home/USB/FireFly/FIREFOX.sh /home/USER/FOLDER/FIREFOX.sh
cp /media/home/USB/FireFly/CLEAN.sh /home/USER/FOLDER/CLEAN.sh
rm MyFirefoxProfile.zipThen make all bash scripts executable, with the following command:
chmod u+x CLEAN.sh FireFly.sh FIREFOX.sh
Finally, return Firefox to normal for the rest of the users by running firefox -P, select default-release, click Use the selected profile at start-up without asking and Start Firefox. Confirm that this is the public profile for the browser, and exit.
You can now check that all files, except for FireFly.sh, are removed when you execute CLEAN.sh. Congratulations! you have succesfully configured all the FireFlyUSB scripts.
If you ever want to change your Firefox configuration or add new extensions or accounts, you will have to compress your folder into a zip again and overwrite the one from your USB.
Note that CLEAN.sh does not send your files to the trash. If you ever find any of your zip files or folders in the trash, delete them permanently.
You are always exposed on a public computer. FireFlyUSB scripts represent a compromise between privacy and everyday comodity, but know that this does not protect you from an infected computer or an attack over the network. Also, even deleted files can be recovered with a file recovery program like Recuva, so be careful what you do.
I am in no way an expert in computer security, so use these scripts at your own risk. If you find a flagrant security hole, please let me know.
In principle you could create your Firefox profile folder directly inside the USB, but at least in my experience it runs sloooooow. This is the reason for FireFlyUSB.
These scripts are written for Linux under the GPL-3.0 License. Feel free to share, edit and adapt them; it would not be hard to translate them for Windows if you want.
Last but not least, thank you for using FireFlyUSB. Have a nice day :D