Bug 42747: Changes for the watershed in the updater

Merge Info

Related Issues

• #42747 #42737 (closed)
• mullvad-browser#xxxxx
• tor-browser-build#xxxxx

Backporting

Timeline

• Immediate: patchset needed as soon as possible
• Next Minor Stable Release: patchset that needs to be verified in nightly before backport
• Eventually: patchset that needs to be verified in alpha before backport
• No Backport (preferred): patchset for the next major stable

(Optional) Justification

• Emergency security update: patchset fixes CVEs, 0-days, etc
• Censorship event: patchset enables censorship circumvention
• Critical bug-fix: patchset fixes a bug in core-functionality
• Consistency: patchset which would make development easier if it were in both the alpha and release branches; developer tools, build system changes, etc
• Sponsor required: patchset required for sponsor
• Localization: typos and other localization changes that should be also in the release branch
• Other: please explain

Merging

• Merge to tor-browser - !fixups to tor-browser-specific commits, new features, security backports
• Merge to base-browser - !fixups to base-browser-specific commits, new features to be shared with mullvad-browser, and security backports
  • NOTE: if your changeset includes patches to both base-browser and tor-browser please clearly label in the change description which commits should be cherry-picked to base-browser after merging

Issue Tracking

• Link resolved issues with appropriate Release Prep issue for changelog generation

Review

Request Reviewer

• Request review from an applications developer depending on modified system:
  • NOTE: if the MR modifies multiple areas, please /cc all the relevant reviewers (since gitlab only allows 1 reviewer)
  • accessibility : henry
  • android : clairehurst, dan
  • build system : boklm
  • extensions : ma1
  • firefox internals (XUL/JS/XPCOM) : jwilde, ma1
  • fonts : pierov
  • frontend (implementation) : henry
  • frontend (review) : donuts, richard
  • localization : henry, pierov
  • macOS : clairehurst, dan
  • nightly builds : boklm
  • rebases/release-prep : dan, ma1, pierov, richard
  • security : jwilde, ma1
  • signing : boklm, richard
  • updater : pierov
  • windows : jwilde, richard
  • misc/other : pierov, richard

Change Description

We need to patch the updater to handle cases in which the most recent patch is unsupported, but another one can be used (right now, the updater will give up if the most recent patch is unsupported).

Since we need to go through a watershed, this is a very good moment to drop also the hash checks from Tor Browser updates (#42737 (closed)). They are redundant with the signatures, and removing an updater patch has a higher benefit in my opinion.

How Tested

I tested especially the part about unsupported updates.

I haven't tested the part about removing the hash check, yet, but it's a reverted commit (and we worked to make it completely self-contained in the past).

I can try to build another set of testbuilds if needed.