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Can someone help me understand what messing with image.http.accept to get other image formats would do?

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  • Last reply by cor-el

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I am trying to download the original version of an image, not the re-compressed webp version (Yes, I know some websites only have a webp format image, but I am specifically talking about sites where I can flat out see .jpg or .png in the URL but it's forcing a recompressed webp version on me instead, reddit itself is one of those sites that does this, I cam flat out see the url ending in .jpg or .png, and then a lot of other gibberish after which if I make any changes to breaks the image, and if I leave as-is forces a webp version. Wikia sites are another that do this.). A lot of what I Google on how to do this is not relevant anymore, telling me to modify a setting that no longer exists, add a variable to the URL that no longer works, or install a plugin that does not seem to work anymore and might be a security risk.

The one thing that seems to work is going to the image.http.accept setting and putting in "*/*". Problem is, I have no idea what exactly this is doing, and it looks like to me that I am somehow telling it just allow everything, which worries me if it can be a security risk or something. Can someone help me understand what exactly I am doing when I modify this setting like this and if it's a security risk to do so?

I am trying to download the original version of an image, not the re-compressed webp version (Yes, I know some websites only have a webp format image, but I am specifically talking about sites where I can flat out see .jpg or .png in the URL but it's forcing a recompressed webp version on me instead, reddit itself is one of those sites that does this, I cam flat out see the url ending in .jpg or .png, and then a lot of other gibberish after which if I make any changes to breaks the image, and if I leave as-is forces a webp version. Wikia sites are another that do this.). A lot of what I Google on how to do this is not relevant anymore, telling me to modify a setting that no longer exists, add a variable to the URL that no longer works, or install a plugin that does not seem to work anymore and might be a security risk. The one thing that seems to work is going to the image.http.accept setting and putting in "*/*". Problem is, I have no idea what exactly this is doing, and it looks like to me that I am somehow telling it just allow everything, which worries me if it can be a security risk or something. Can someone help me understand what exactly I am doing when I modify this setting like this and if it's a security risk to do so?

All Replies (5)

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How about providing the steps to replicate so we can see what you're talking about.

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I'm not sure what you mean by steps to replicate? I am asking about a configration option, not reporting a bug.

But if you want an example, take a random post on Reddit with an image, such as this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/1br7z8t/heres_a_picture_of_the_starfield_graphics_card_i/  

If you try to save the image, it will save in .webp format. If you copy the image link, you will see "https://preview.redd.it/9txlwwg25erc1.jpeg?width=1024&auto=webp&s=bc7c4fcaf6d34b08e1e2a75fe428e4b4c9d425e5" which clearly shows the image is in .jpeg format, but is being recompressed to webp.

If I go to "about:config", go to the "image.http.accept" setting, and enter "*/*" in there, then refresh, then when I try to save the image again it will download in .jpeg format.

My question is what exactly am I telling Firefox to do when I modify that setting? I know that * is a wildcard that basically means anything in place of that character, so I want to know I am somehow making Firefox accept things it should not or lettings things that could be a security risk or so getting through if I add that parameter to "image.http.accept".

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Gotcha. Looks like KDE browser has a better option. see screenshot

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Disregard.

Modified by jonzn4SUSE

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