Mozilla patches 10 flaws

gallery

Mozilla has updated its open-source Firefox internet browser, patching 10 flaws and releasing new versions for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

Of the ten patches released by the vendor, three were rated as critical. But security vendor and vulnerability monitor Secunia called the pack of patches "highly critical" overall.

It noted that the most serious of the bugs could allow code execution, where attackers could insert malware into systems running an unpatched version of Firefox.

The software provider also updated a patch first issued in July that was designed to plug the hole created by a Universal Resource Identifier (URI) weakness in Windows identified some months ago, but that was finally acknowledged by Microsoft last week.

In notes accompanying the URI patch, Mozilla said: "That [July patch] did not prevent the incorrect file-handling programs from launching, which left some risk."

It also said an additional fix has been applied to its latest version, Firefox 2.0.0.8, that "detects when Windows would mishandle these URIs so that the wrong program does not get launched". And this patch follows a series from Mozilla that attempt to plug the URI vulnerability gap.

Mozilla also said the new Firefox version 2.0.0.8 that was also released for the three most popular operating systems (OS) late last week is also compatible with the latest Mac OS X 10.5, known as Leopard.

But it said some issues remained in running the new version on Leopard, which is out at the end of this week. It said there were several "known issues" with the browser when it is running in Mac OS X 10.5, including problems associated with an unknown number of media plug-ins, trouble rendering Flash content on Intel-powered Macs and items displayed incorrectly in the Add-ons dialog box.

Email to a friend

Print this page