Firefox remote debugging server: restricting which hosts may connect to the debugger port
0 reputation · 14 Nov 2020, 16:17 UTC
Goal
I want a repeatable development environment where Firefox's remote debugging server (started with --start-debugger-server 6000 and devtools.debugger.remote-enabled set to true) accepts connections only from approved hosts, so the same scripted setup can be shared across a team without exposing the debugging interface to the whole network.
Constraint
As far as I can tell from the documented preferences, there is no built-in option to bind the debugger server to a specific interface or to restrict which origins or IP addresses may initiate a session. Once enabled, the listener appears reachable by any client that can route to the port, and authentication or origin filtering does not seem to be part of the current stable behavior. Firewall rules work, but they live outside the Firefox profile and break the goal of a self-contained, reproducible configuration.
Questions
- Is there any supported preference, command-line flag, or profile-level setting in current Firefox releases that limits remote debugger connections to localhost or an allowlist of hosts?
- If not, what is the recommended way to keep this restriction inside a scripted, repeatable environment rather than relying on OS-level firewall rules?
- Is an origin or token-based restriction on the debugger server on the Firefox roadmap, and is there a Bugzilla ticket worth tracking?