diff --git a/pkgs/applications/networking/browsers/firefox/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/networking/browsers/firefox/default.nix
index 4a1b642d838..a01cde4d6de 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/networking/browsers/firefox/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/networking/browsers/firefox/default.nix
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 , hunspell, libevent, libstartup_notification, libvpx
 , cairo, gstreamer, gst_plugins_base, icu, libpng, jemalloc, libpulseaudio
 , autoconf213, which
-, writeScript, xidel, coreutils, gnused, gnugrep, curl, ed
+, writeScript, xidel, common-updater-scripts, coreutils, gnused, gnugrep, curl
 , enableGTK3 ? false
 , debugBuild ? false
 , # If you want the resulting program to call itself "Firefox" instead
@@ -151,8 +151,8 @@ in {
     version = "51.0.1";
     sha512 = "556e31b717c0640ef5e181e00b9d2a6ea0ace7c16ae04333d0f2e9e120d0ab9efe82a4ca314ef43594c080523edf37953e65dbf694c7428be0a024f3719d8312";
     updateScript = import ./update.nix {
-        name = "firefox";
-        inherit writeScript xidel coreutils gnused gnugrep curl ed;
+      attrPath = "firefox-unwrapped";
+      inherit writeScript lib common-updater-scripts xidel coreutils gnused gnugrep curl;
     };
   };
 
@@ -161,9 +161,9 @@ in {
     version = "45.7.0esr";
     sha512 = "6424101b6958191ce654d0619950dfbf98d4aa6bdd979306a2df8d6d30d3fecf1ab44638061a2b4fb1af85fe972f5ff49400e8eeda30cdcb9087c4b110b97a7d";
     updateScript = import ./update.nix {
-        name = "firefox-esr";
-        versionSuffix = "esr";
-        inherit writeScript xidel coreutils gnused gnugrep curl ed;
+      attrPath = "firefox-esr-unwrapped";
+      versionSuffix = "esr";
+      inherit writeScript lib common-updater-scripts xidel coreutils gnused gnugrep curl;
     };
   };
 
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/networking/browsers/firefox/update.nix b/pkgs/applications/networking/browsers/firefox/update.nix
index 33c9f307918..0f465122806 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/networking/browsers/firefox/update.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/networking/browsers/firefox/update.nix
@@ -1,23 +1,18 @@
-{ name
-, writeScript
+{ writeScript
+, lib
 , xidel
+, common-updater-scripts
 , coreutils
 , gnused
 , gnugrep
 , curl
-, ed
-, sourceSectionRegex ? "${name}-unwrapped = common"
-, basePath ? "pkgs/applications/networking/browsers/firefox"
+, attrPath
 , baseUrl ? "http://archive.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/"
 , versionSuffix ? ""
 }:
 
-let
-  version = (builtins.parseDrvName name).version;
-in writeScript "update-${name}" ''
-  PATH=${coreutils}/bin:${gnused}/bin:${gnugrep}/bin:${xidel}/bin:${curl}/bin:${ed}/bin
-
-  pushd ${basePath}
+writeScript "update-${attrPath}" ''
+  PATH=${lib.makeBinPath [ common-updater-scripts coreutils curl gnugrep gnused xidel ]}
 
   url=${baseUrl}
 
@@ -35,20 +30,5 @@ in writeScript "update-${name}" ''
 
   shasum=`curl --silent $url$version/SHA512SUMS | grep 'source\.tar\.xz' | cut -d ' ' -f 1`
 
-  ed default.nix <<COMMANDS
-  # search line
-    /${sourceSectionRegex}/
-  # search version number line
-    /version/
-  # update the version
-    s/".*"/"$version"/
-  # search hash line
-    /sha512/
-  # update the hash
-    s/".*"/"$shasum"/
-  # write then quit
-    wq
-  COMMANDS
-
-  popd
+  update-source-version ${attrPath} "$version" "$shasum"
 ''
diff --git a/pkgs/applications/networking/mailreaders/thunderbird/default.nix b/pkgs/applications/networking/mailreaders/thunderbird/default.nix
index 52775ce9781..f71a6dff37c 100644
--- a/pkgs/applications/networking/mailreaders/thunderbird/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/applications/networking/mailreaders/thunderbird/default.nix
@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchurl, pkgconfig, which, m4, gtk2, pango, perl, python2, zip, libIDL
+{ stdenv, lib, fetchurl, pkgconfig, which, m4, gtk2, pango, perl, python2, zip, libIDL
 , libjpeg, libpng, zlib, dbus, dbus_glib, bzip2, xorg
 , freetype, fontconfig, file, alsaLib, nspr, nss, libnotify
 , yasm, mesa, sqlite, unzip, makeWrapper
 , hunspell, libevent, libstartup_notification, libvpx
 , cairo, gstreamer, gst_plugins_base, icu
-, writeScript, xidel, coreutils, gnused, gnugrep, curl, ed
+, writeScript, xidel, common-updater-scripts, coreutils, gnused, gnugrep, curl
 , debugBuild ? false
 , # If you want the resulting program to call itself "Thunderbird"
   # instead of "Earlybird", enable this option.  However, those
@@ -140,10 +140,8 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   };
 
   passthru.updateScript = import ./../../browsers/firefox/update.nix {
-    name = "thunderbird";
-    sourceSectionRegex = ".";
-    basePath = "pkgs/applications/networking/mailreaders/thunderbird";
+    attrPath = "thunderbird";
     baseUrl = "http://archive.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/";
-    inherit writeScript xidel coreutils gnused gnugrep curl ed;
+    inherit writeScript lib common-updater-scripts xidel coreutils gnused gnugrep curl;
   };
 }