Problems with Firefox

[Rollingthunder]

Critical flaws found in Firefox

Firefox has just celebrated its 50 millionth download
The Mozilla Foundation has said it is "working aggressively" to fix two flaws in its open source Firefox browser.
The vulnerabilities, reported on Saturday, were identified as "very critical", but no cases had been reported of them being exploited.

Several security firms identified the flaws which could let websites run malicious code on a person's computer.

Mozilla has responded by changing its update service and says people should temporarily turn off JavaScript code.

Manual downloads

The first flaw reported fools the browser into thinking software is being installed by a legitimate, or safe, website.

The second flaw happens when the software installation trigger does not properly check icon web addresses which contain JavaScript code.

A hacker could potentially take advantage of the security flaws to secretly launch malicious code or programs.

Mozilla advised people to download add-ons to its software manually from the Foundation's site.

Danish security firm Secunia said called the flaws "extremely critical" because cookie and history information could be used to get access to personal information or gain access to sites previously visited.

The Mozilla Foundation, which developed the browser, said it was working hard to provide a comprehensive and more permanent fix for the problems.


BBC

[MadsDad]

Rollingthunder.

Do you have a version number for the patch?

I downloaded an update to firefox last weekend, do you know if that would have the fix? (can't remember offhand what the new version number is).

[Groundgripper]

Mozilla have now (12th May) released a new version (V1.0.4) which covers the problems with earlier versions. The advice is to download and install it ASAP.

Errors in the earlier versions are discussed here (http://www.mozilla.org/projects/security/known-vulnerabilities.html)
Apparently they are not going to release details for a few days.

I've just done it and it seems to work fine.

If you have the appropriate box checked (Tools/Options/Advanced/Software updates) you will get a small red triangle in the top right-hand corner of the screen, next to the circle of grey dots, when an update is available. Click on that and you will initiate the download. When you have installed it you may find that the triangle is till there. Click on it again and it will tell you that there are no new downloads and it will then disappear(!).

GG

[MadsDad]

Interesting. I've got 1.0.3 loaded and just tried the 'check now' for the updates which came up with no new updates available. (15/05, 11:00).

[Groundgripper]

Have you tried looking on the Mozilla website, MadsDad?

My version is definitely 1.0.4 according to the Icon on my desktop.

GG

[Engineer]

Version 1.0.4 for windows here (http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/all) :ok:

[Evo]

alternatively www.getfirefox.com (http://www.getfirefox.com) always has the latest version.

At some point recently it has gained the nice feature where if something tries to redirect you via a malformed URL (of the [email protected]/pprune.org variety) then it points out that you're actually going to hack.it rather than where you might have expected. If only IE/OE would do the same then it might help kill off these Phishing attacks

[MadsDad]

Thanks, I'll get 1.0.4 this evening.

Just a bit surprised their version link points to a (not quite) latest release (RollingThunder did advise downloading an advance patch but GroundGripper seemed to indicate that this was now the official version).

[Feline]

Notice that version 1.0.4 is a complete new package, not just a patch to the existing 1.0.3 package.

I'm sure that the fact that Microsoft is wont to patch an existing installed package is the source of many woes -- when the patch doesn't quite work the way they think it will ...

Just a thought - Bravo Mozilla!