browser should decompress gz/bzip2/xz/... files

[petaflot]

when opening a text file that was compressed with a standard method (gz,xz,bzip2,...) firefox should be able to decompress on-the-fly and not require the user to save the file to disk and manually decompress then open that file.

when compression is detected, firefox SHOULD prompt the user to either "save as-is" or "show decompressed" ; in the second case there should be the option to "save original compressed file" and "save decompressed file"

when compression is detected, contextual menu should offer an option to "save decompressed link target as..."

[Jon]

Thanks for submitting an idea to the Mozilla Connect community! Your idea is now open to votes (aka kudos) and comments.

[SugarPlacebo]

Sounds like this could be potentially exploited to unpack malware. 

[petaflot]

well obviously, but opening a file to display the content to the user should not execute any code - why should it?

whether the user unpacks the "malware" manually with the shell or this is done by the browser (maybe with a prompt like "you are trying to view a insert_compression_method_here compressed file, do you want to a) save it to disk as-is b) view it as-is c) save decompressed content without executing it d) use insert_path_of_decompression_helper_here to decompress to view the content"

one can also add sth in the order of "Big F* warning: compressed files may contain simple text files with various encodings or executables, media files and other binary content that may be subject to attack vectors such as trojans, viruses, this file may even be a zip bomb for all we know but the exact same warning applies if unpacking the file with a shell or the context menu of a file manager"

how does that sound?