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There are several questions on how to enable plugins on Tor, all answered.

My question is simple, how can I add Flash and/or Silverlight plugins in Tor and make sure they actually work, and please don't give me that "oh your security is blown" talk.

I would actually like to see these plugins working, even if just as a proof-of-concept, because everyone says it supports them but they are disabled by default, but after trying everything I could find, it still doesn't work.

I've whitelisted sites, I've installed 32 bit versions of the extensions, enabled them in noscript, etc., but my add-ons page always comes up empty.

If this is not possible, we should stop saying it is and just accept it isn't.

If it IS possible, then please help me checking what I have to do that I haven't done yet.

How can I use silverlight with Tor?

Why can't Tor Browser use Adobe Flash Player?

Can Tor be used with Netflix or Hulu?

Silverlight not working

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Community
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Tiago Duarte
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2 Answers2

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Look, using plug-ins in the Tor Browser is the same as using your default browser. Any protection from Tor is lost because the plugins COMPLETELY IGNORE THE PROXY SETTINGS.

If you want to use plugins, don't use Tor. Trying to use both at the same time is most wasted effort. The only difference between doing this and using your normal browser is the fact that your normal browser already has the plugins installed.

In fact, it'd be easier to set up a local Tor proxy, and tell your default browser to use that. Since plugins ignore the proxy, you'll get the exact same effect as on the Tor Browser.

SuperSluether
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Documenting my findings in case it helps someone else.

Requisites

Tor > Privacy and Security settings > uncheck "Disable browser plugins (such as Flash)"

enter image description here

To Install Adobe Flash (23.0.0.205)

1) open https://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

2) download and install flash (uncheck 3rd party software)

note: installer file is deleted after installation

3) open add-ons page, plugins, set flash to activate always

enter image description here

4) test flash: https://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/

enter image description here

To Install Silverlight (5.1.50901.0) - Unsuccessful

1) open https://www.microsoft.com/getsilverlight/get-started/install/default.aspx

2) download and install silverlight

3) open add-ons page, plugins, set silverlight to activate always

4) test silverlight: https://www.microsoft.com/getsilverlight/default.aspx

Findings:

  • in "about:config" there is a property plugin.scan.plid.all. AFAIK this is responsible for finding plugins in the system on every run
  • file pluginreg.dat (about:support, click "show folder") shows detected plugins but is unable to find silverlight (32 or 64 bit). in firefox it works immediately
  • some people have been trying to use Tor for watching Netflix. aside from arguing how bad this is/looks, Netflix offers HTML5 support from Firefox 47, so anything below that will offer Silverlight instead. tweaking the user agent doesn't seem to help, as there are likely browser features required for the video rendering; another way to overcome this is to run actual firefox 47+ with a local Tor proxy (open Tor, copy proxy settings to firefox). in this case, technically everything will work, however, Netflix has recently implemented a validation that will detect proxies and block the service
  • in conclusion, plugins do work, but perhaps there is some kind of issue with Tor finding Silverlight as a valid plugin. anyway, in a couple of months firefox will also drop NAPI support

Notes/Further reading

Mozilla plans to drop support for all NPAPI plugins except for Flash in March 2017, when Firefox version 52 is released.

Netflix HTML5 requires Firefox v47+

Tiago Duarte
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