Mozilla fixes browser bugs
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The Mozilla Foundation has fixed 10 security bugs in its open-source Mozilla and Mozilla Firefox browsers and Thunderbird e-mail reader, with the release of new versions of all three products this week.
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Microsoft has acknowledged that a bug fix for its Internet Explorer browser last week did, indeed, cripple the browser for some users. Rather than re-release the patch, it's telling users how to modify Windows' registry to get IE back up and running.
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Mozilla bumped up the threat ranking for an unpatched Firefox bug to "high," but promises a quick fix.
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Mozilla has pushed to users minor upgrades to both Firefox and the Thunderbird e-mail client, with both including seven security patches each and improvements to product stability.
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(InfoWorld) - With the release of its latest Firefox 2.0.0.5 browser, open-source software maker Mozilla claims to have fixed a number of potentially serious vulnerabilities in its flagship product. According to the firm's chief security officer, the company is working harder than ever to keep its users protected. Through the launch of Firefox 2.0.0.5 late on July 17, Mozilla moved to patch nine individual flaws resident in previous iterations of the program. Patches built into 2.0.0.5 included those meant to address multiple memory corruption bugs, a cross-site scripting vulnerability, and a flaw that could give attackers access to the browser's cache. Among the other problems the company addressed in the update was even an unusual vulnerability that could cause malicious code to run on a PC if the browser is launched using Microsoft's rival Internet Explorer software -- a flaw that Mozilla could have easily pinned on Microsoft, despite denials from the software maker that it is at all responsible for mending the issue. And while some security experts still maintain that open-source products are ill-fitted for use inside enterprise businesses as they may leave the door open to savvy attackers who can take advantage of the readily-available nature of the products' widely-published source code, Window Snyder, whose official title is "chief security something-or-other" at Mozilla, claims that the firm's very makeup has led Firefox and the vendor's other products to offer stronger protection for end-users than proprietary systems with which they compete. "Transparency has been one of the key factors to our success in improving security; some see doing development with the whole world watching as an obstacle, and at times it can be a challenge, but we see it as a unique strength," Snyder said. The security expert, herself a former employee of Microsoft, said that Mozilla currently enlists more than 10,000 people in regular security testing of its nightly product builds. Compared to a standard Web browser development team operating under one company's roof, the virtual legion of open-source contributors provides a far deeper pool of talent to try to assault its products to find any vulnerabilities, she said. Companies including Microsoft often point to the comparatively large numbers of bugs reported in Mozilla products by security researchers as an indicator that the technologies are less secure than their own. However, the volume of issues being uncovered in Firefox and other open-source products is actually an illustration of the high level of scrutiny such applications receive, which is more than their proprietary counterparts, Snyder maintains. Microsoft sends out a set of patches only once every month, but the virtual Firefox security testing team is helping Mozilla turnaround updates almost as quickly as it receives reports of any flaws, she said. Patching vulnerabilities as quickly as possible is a more effective approach to thwarting attacks as hackers often have longer periods of time to craft assaults on proprietary systems before they are fixed, according to the expert. Mozilla has also added real-time vulnerability updates for its users in the past year, easing the burden on people to stay abreast of any fixes on their own. "This community approach is the reason we're able to ship patches so quickly. It's more important to communicate with people and let them know what is going on versus waiting and sitting on the information," said Snyder. "If people start looking at the amount of time it takes for companies to get updates out as the best measurement of overall security versus the number of problems that may be identified, more people are going to change their minds about whether open source is indeed the most secure model." Questioned as to whether it becomes a challenge to respond to 10,000 independent security contributors helping in the review of its programs, Snyder said that an unofficial hierarchy has created itself among the people who regularly make helpful suggestions to Mozilla. "It's a challenge and an opportunity trying to do development with that many different voices, and often the most adamant people make significant contributions, but people also make points and build a consensus and ideas bubble up through the group that way," she said. "Even if it makes for more work, we think it's always better to listen to the voices of many than it is to limit the process to only a few."
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The Mozilla Foundation has fixed 10 security bugs in its open-source Mozilla and Mozilla Firefox browsers and Thunderbird e-mail reader, with the release of new versions of all three products this week. Some of the vulnerabilities could allow attackers to run malicious code on a user's PC via a malicious e-mail, a specially crafted vCard or a malformed graphic on a Web site, project leaders said.
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Mozilla Foundation says patch issued in mid-December introduced vulnerability to browser and application suite.
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Attention Firefox users: Mozilla Corp. has updated its open-source Web browser to patch 10 bugs, including three rated as critical, and released the updated versions for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.
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Microsoft has released an update to Internet Explorer to fix a security flaw that was discovered a month ago and has since been exploited to attack users.
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(InfoWorld) - The Mozilla Foundation has published a fix for a "critical" JavaScript vulnerability in the Firefox browser and the SeaMonkey application suite. The fix, released Monday, targets Firefox versions 2.0.0.2 and 1.5.0.10, as well as SeaMonkey versions 1.1.1 and 1.0.8. An earlier fix for a JavaScript problem allowed scripts from Web content to execute arbitrary code, the Mozilla Foundation said in a security update. The vulnerability allowed uniform resource identifiers in image tags to be executed even if JavaScript was disabled in the program preferences, Mozilla said. Disabling JavaScript does not protect against the flaw, so the foundation recommended that users upgrade the applications to new versions. Mozilla's Thunderbird e-mail client was not affected by the vulnerability, it said. The fix comes on the heels ofÂ criticism from independent security researcher Michael Zalewski regarding Firefox vulnerabilities, including spoofing and phising threats aimed at the newly released Firefox version 2.0.0.2. Mozilla CSO Window SnyderÂ saidÂ she is seeing more customer feedback regarding browser security and hopes thatÂ more independent researchers and customer feedback will help the company patch flaws more quickly. "The browser is one of most critical pieces of software on the computer in terms of something attackers are going after," Snyder said. "Attacks are constantly changing and every software developer needs to recognize new threats as they emerge, but that's nothing new, we've always considered security to be a top priority." Matt Hines, a senior writer at InfoWorld, contributed to this report
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THE MOZILLA FOUNDATION has announced that a hole in its Firefox software has been patched. Firefox suffers from a vulnerability that could allow hackers to delete all the files in the Download directory.
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(InfoWorld) - Mozilla patched its flagship Firefox browser Thursday with fixes for six vulnerabilities, one of which was stamped "critical" by the open-source developer. This was the third time Mozilla has updated Firefox in 2007. The updates bring the current browser to Version 2.0.0.4 and the 2005 edition to 1.5.0.12. MFSA 2007-12, the most serious of the six, patched 30 separate memory corruption bugs in the browser layout and JavaScript engines. Even Mozilla seemed unsure of their impact. "Some of these crashes showed evidence of memory corruption under certain circumstances, and we presume that with enough effort, at least some of these could be exploited to run arbitrary code," the advisory read. Mozilla warned Thunderbird and SeaMonkey that their e-mail software, which shares Firefox's layout engine, may be vulnerable to these bugs as well. The developers recommend that users do not enable JavaScript in Thunderbird or the mail portion of SeaMonkey. The updates also fix a pop-up bug that could be used to mask parts of the browser, such as the address bar; a cross-site scripting vulnerability; a problem with how the browsers handle cookies; and a flaw that could let attackers crash Firefox using its autocomplete feature. Firefox 2.0.0.4 can be downloaded from the Mozilla Web site for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux; Firefox 1.5.0.12, meanwhile, is available from a different page. Current users can also update using the Check for Updates command in the help menu. Mozilla also reiterated that Thursday's patches would be Firefox 1.5's last and said that an update to Firefox 2.0.0.4 would be offered to its users "over the coming weeks." Although Firefox ended 2006 on an upbeat security note according to Symantec -- the anti-virus vendor tallied 40 patches in the last six months of the year, 26 percent fewer than the 54 released for rival browser Internet Explorer -- so far this year, Mozilla has addressed more than twice as many vulnerabilities as IE. In the first five months of 2007, 22 bugs in Firefox have been patched, nine of which were pegged as critical. Microsoft has fixed only eight in IE; seven were labeled critical.
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Mozilla is investigating hacker claims that the Web browser has a serious flaw in the way it handles JavaScript.
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Mozilla is working to fix a browser flaw that could give attackers unauthorized access to data on a victim's machine.
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The last planned alpha update to Firefox 3.0 is released.
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Mozilla issued 10 patches on Friday for its Firefox browser, including three for critical vulnerabilities. The latest version of Firefox is now 2.0.0.12.One of the critical vulnerabilities, MFSA 2008-06, is a problem in the way the browser handles images on certain Web pages.It&#39;s possible to exploit the flaw to steal a person&#39;s Web browsing history, forward that information and then crash the browser. It may also be possible to run arbitrary code on a machine, Mozilla said.A second critical vulnerability can enable a privilege escalation attack or remote code execution.The last critical problem involves a memory corruption flaw that &quot;we presume that with enough effort at least some of these could be exploited to run arbitrary code,&quot; Mozilla said.Also notable is a fix for a problem with Mozilla&#39;s &quot;chrome&quot; protocol, which is the term Mozilla uses for its user interface. The problem involves some of Firefox&#39;s add-ons, or applications that users can download which extend browser functionality.The vulnerability would let an attacker determine what applications are installed on a person&#39;s PC, which could give clues to how the machine could be compromised, Mozilla said. However, a victim would have to be lured to a special malicious Web page designed to take advantage of the flaw.&#160;
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As expected, Mozilla Corp. has released an update to Firefox that eliminates 11 vulnerabilities, including four ranked as "critical" by the software developer.