Firefox on Omid Farhang

Firefox 22 enables WebRTC, makes social APIs easier to manage

Wed, 26 Jun 2013 09:26:18 +0000

BetaNews: Mozilla has released Firefox 22.0 FINAL for Windows, Mac and Linux. The update includes some platform-specific improvements — Firefox following display scaling options in Windows, and providing download progress indicators in its dock application icon in OS X — plus a number of other tweaks and improvements.

Other new features include the ability for users to now manage their social API plug-ins via the Add-ons menu (select Services in the left-hand menu to do so), while users can now adjust the playback rate of HTML5 audio and video files (right-click the playback screen and choose Play Speed to do so).

Firefox 16 re-released fixing multiple vulnerabilities

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 11:39:00 +0000

The H-Online: The latest version of Firefox, version 16, has returned to Mozilla’s servers with the release of Firefox 16.0.1 after the discovery of vulnerabilities caused the organization to remove the just-released open source web browser from circulation. Mozilla’s security blog post described the problem as just that of a malicious web site being able to potentially determine the URLs and parameters used and suggested downgrading to Firefox 15.0.1, despite the numerous critical bugs fixed in Firefox 16.

Mozilla closes numerous critical holes in Firefox 16 [Update]

Fri, 12 Oct 2012 11:35:00 +0000

The h-online: Following the recent Firefox 16 release, Mozilla has now detailed all of the security fixes in the new version of its open source web browser as well as in the Thunderbird news and email client. Version 2.13 of the SeaMonkey “all-in-one internet application suite” has also received fixes. In addition to adding new features, version 16.0 of Firefox closes a total of 14 security holes, 11 of which are rated as “Critical” by the project.

Download Firefox 15 and Thunderbird 15!

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 16:55:00 +0000

Cross-copied from BetaNews:

Mozilla has quietly placed major new versions of its open-source, cross-platform web browser and email client onto its download servers ahead of an official release.

Firefox 15 FINAL benefits largely from behind-the-scenes performance tweaks, while Thunderbird 15 FINAL introduces a few new features, including a new curvy user interface.

Firefox 15 FINAL’s most notable changes are performance-based. There’s faster startup on Windows PCs, plus incremental garbage collection and better management of plugins to prevent memory leaks. Other performance improvements surround WebGL enhancements.

Firefox 17 to make add-ons more secure

Thu, 23 Aug 2012 12:38:00 +0000

h-Online: As suggested by some of its developers back in 2010, the Firefox browser will introduce enhanced separation between add-ons and the rest of the browser. With the change, which is planned to take effect with the release of Firefox 17, scripts on web pages will only be able to access the data belonging to add-ons if they are included in a whitelist.

The beta version of Firefox 15 already logs warning messages in the browser’s Error Console when a page that is not on the whitelist tries to access data from add-ons. This behavior has been included to make add-on developers aware of the new policy and to give them time to fix their add-on’s behavior before the release of Firefox 17.

Firefox "new tab" feature tweaked following privacy concerns

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 18:51:00 +0000

h-online: Mozilla has implemented changes to Firefox 14 that address concerns raised by privacy-conscious users over the “new tab” feature in Firefox 13. The Firefox developers have changed the browser’s behavior so that sensitive information should no longer leak via screenshots of web sites.

When opening a new tab, Firefox 13 shows users a grid of screenshots of their most visited pages. After this feature was introduced, several users complained to Mozilla and pointed out that the feature also takes screenshots of sensitive web sites such as login pages for online banking sites.

Firefox, Thunderbird, Panda and more updates

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 19:10:00 +0000

Mozilla Firefox: Mozilla has released a new update for Firefox, Mozilla Firefox 14.0.1, This version comes with Google Secure search by default, flat buttons in toolbar and some Performance improvement and security fixes. Read more in Mozilla Blog.

Mozilla Thunderbird: Mozilla also updated Thunderbird, Mozilla Thunderbird 14, This version mostly focus on stability, performance and security fixes. I think we cannot expect much more new feature in Thunderbird anymore, Mozilla has announced that they changed the way they develop Thunderbird, Read it yourself in Mozilla Blog.

Adobe updates Flash Player 11.3 to fix Firefox crashing problem

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 20:30:00 +0000

Adobe has released an updated version of its proprietary Flash Player 11.3 plugin to address a bug that caused Firefox 13 on Windows to crash for some users. The problem is believed to have been related to the recently introduced Protected Mode for the Windows version of Flash Player and the open source web browser; the new mode is designed to isolate the plugin from the rest of the system by running it in its own sandbox.

Firefox 13 Final is available for download [Link]

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 08:49:00 +0000

Mozilla Firefox 13 is available for download on Mozilla FTP servers.

Visual changes in this version is flatten buttons in toolbar, smooth scroll enabled by default, New Home Screen and a new look for New Tab page.

Download: Firefox Setup 13.0.exe [Mirror]

MD5: 89bc2ab1a1fa1e2d989d1c551f2a6ddf
Size: 15.8MB

Firefox WebSocket bug compromises Tor anonymity

Thu, 03 May 2012 14:27:00 +0000

The current versions of the Tor Browser Bundle (TBB) include a bug that makes it possible for information about visited web sites to leak out of the anonymising layer. On version 2.2.35-9 of TBB for Windows and version 2.2.35-10 for Mac OS X and Linux, the included version of Firefox does not send DNS requests over the Tor network if the browser is using the WebSocket protocol. This means that an attacker listening in on the connection will be able to identify the servers the user is visiting.

Privacy concerns over popular ShowIP Firefox add-on

Tue, 01 May 2012 15:58:00 +0000

Cross-posted from SophosLabs: A popular Firefox add-on appears to have started leaking private information about every website that users visit to a third-party server, including sensitive data which could identify individuals or reduce their security.

Naked Security reader Rob Sanders alerted us to the activities of the recently updated ShowIP add-on for the Firefox browser.

According to the description on the Mozilla add-ons website, ShowIP is designed to “show the IP address(es) of the current page in the status bar. It also allows querying custom information services by IP (right click) and hostname (left click), like whois, netcraft, etc. Additionally you can copy the IP address to the clipboard.”

Mozilla to auto-upgrade Firefox 3.6 users to version 12

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 17:32:00 +0000

H-Online: Soon, users running Firefox 3.6.x will start being automatically upgraded to the current version 12.0 release of the open source web browser. The plan to auto-update these users has been being discussed since the end of March, when Mozilla Release Manager Alex Keybl proposed the move on a Mozilla planning discussion thread.

According to Keybl, Firefox 3.6.x users with updates enabled should start being upgraded in early May – the specific date has yet to be confirmed. The 3.6.x branch of Firefox, the first release of which arrived in January 2010, reached its end of life last week on 24 April; the last update to the 3.6 series was version 3.6.28 from early March.

Get ready for exciting changes coming to Firefox 13, 14 and 15

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:12:00 +0000

Cross-posted from BetaNews: Following on from the release of Firefox 12 FINAL, Mozilla has updated its developmental branches to versions 13 (Beta), 14 (Aurora) and 15 (Nightly/UX), respectively. Those looking for major changes in version 12 will may be disappointed, but future builds promise a number of radical new features, including redesigned Home and New Tab pages, plus panel downloads manager and inline preferences screen.

Get a head’s up on what’s coming and discover which build is best for your personal needs with our essential guide to what’s coming up in the near future for Mozilla’s open-source, cross-platform browser.

Firefox and Thunderbird 12 are out, Download now!

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 19:24:00 +0000

Mozilla has released new final versions of Firefox 12 and Thunderbird 12, its open source browser and email messaging tools. Neither update, despite the new version number, contains much in the way of exciting new features, but developments on future builds suggest version 13 could be a landmark release for both.

Firefox 12 introduces one notable change for Windows users — the advent of silent updates with no User Account Control dialog getting in the way, while Thunderbird 12’s headline new feature is the ability to view message extracts in global search results.

Firefox switching to encrypted Google search

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 20:01:00 +0000

The H-Online: An inconspicuous “s” added to various lines of code in its latest nightly builds means that future versions of Firefox will send all search queries to Google in encrypted form. This means that instead of HTTP, the open source browser will use the HTTPS protocol, which encrypts traffic between the web site and browser using SSL. The nightly builds will feed through, over the next few months, until the feature is, most probably, in Firefox 14.

Firefox 11 release postponed due to security issues [Updated]

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 13:57:00 +0000

H-Online: The Firefox team has announced that they are postponing the release of Firefox 11, originally planned for today, because of a security report which the team wants to evaluate to make sure the issue will not impact on their code. Jonathan Nightingale, Mozilla’s Senior Director of Firefox Engineering, also Microsoft’s monthly Patch Tuesday security update, also scheduled for today, as a reason to hold back on releasing the new Firefox version.

Firefox and Thunderbird updates to 10.0.2, Vulnerability in libpng

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:13:00 +0000

The H-Online: The Mozilla Project has released updates to Firefox and Thunderbird. According to the release notes, the version 10.0.2 updates to the open source web browser and the news and email client address a security vulnerability; however, at the time of writing, the project’s security pages provide no details of what has been fixed; these releases came soon after a Chrome update which closed 13 security holes and took the version number to 17.0.963.56.

Browser Speed Tests: Chrome 17, Firefox 10, Internet Explorer 9, and Opera 11.61

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:38:00 +0000

LifeHacker:

Chrome 17 is out with a new pre-rendering feature designed to make your pages load faster, and both Firefox and Opera have also released speedy new versions since our last round of speed tests. So, we’ve once again pitted the four most popular web browsers against each other in a battle of startup times, tab loading times, and more, with more surprising results.

Continue Reading: http://lifehacker.com/5884941/browser-speed-tests-chrome-17-firefox-10-internet-explorer-9-and-opera-1161

(Hint: As always Chrome is winner, no doubt!)

Mozilla closes critical security hole in Firefox, Thunderbird and SeaMonkey

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:13:00 +0000

The H-Online: Mozilla has released Firefox 10.0.1, Firefox ESR 10.0.1, Thunderbird 10.0.1, Thunderbird ESR 10.0.1 and SeaMonkey 2.7.1 to fix a single critical security hole in the browsers and mail clients which appeared in version 10. The security advisory says that versions previous to Firefox 10, Thunderbird 10 and SeaMonkey 2.7 are unaffected by the use after free problem.

The problem was discovered by Mozilla developers and causes a “potentially exploitable” crash in nsXBLDocumentInfo::ReadPrototypeBindings. Updates are available through Firefox, Thunderbird and SeaMonkey’s automatic update system and can be made to install by bringing up the “About” dialogue for the relevant application and selecting the “Apply Upgrade” button when it appears. Firefox and Thunderbird 10 were released at the end of January.

Mozilla Firefox 10.0.1 Update About To Be Released

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:58:00 +0000

gHacks: Mozilla, developers of the popular Firefox web browser, have just released an update for the browser’s stable branch that moves the version to 10.0.1. The release may come as a surprise to users of Firefox 10, who were updated to that version only ten days ago.

This is not the first occurrence that a critical update is released shortly after a major version upgrade of the web browser. Similar updates had to be delivered after the release of Firefox 9 and Firefox 8.