FIREFOX FAULTS. The Mozilla Foundation has just catastrophically corrected two major security flaws already exploited by hackers in Firefox. It is urgent to install the update to browse safely.

FIREFOX FAULTS. The Mozilla Foundation has just catastrophically corrected two major security flaws already exploited by hackers in Firefox. It is urgent to install the update to browse safely.

If you use Firefox, on both computer and mobile, install the latest version of the browser without delay! The Mozilla Foundation has just published an update correcting two security problems: two serious flaws that are already exploited by hackers. Detected and reported by security researchers from the Chinese company 360 ATA, these zero-day vulnerabilities exploit “use-after-free” bugs that can corrupt system memory and execute arbitrary code. As Mozzila explains in its official press release, the first flaw (CVE-2022-26485) concerns the XSLT module which converts XML documents into web pages or PDFs, while the second (CVE-2022-26486) is linked to WebGPU, a JavaScript programming interface responsible for graphic rendering. But whatever their role and their shortcomings, the intimate foundation to immediately update your browser with the new versions: Firefox (97.0.2), Firefox ESR (91.6.1), Firefox for Android (97.3), Focus (97.3) and even Thunderbird mail (91.6.2) which is also affected.

Firefox crash: the bug that blocked the Web is fixed

This is not the first major problem that the Mozilla Foundation has had to deal with urgently this year. For a few hours on the morning of Thursday, January 13, millions of Firefox users couldn’t surf the web normally. The problem stemmed from a browser update that happened on the night of January 12-13. According to experts, it was related to data collection or protocol management of HTTP3. It did not concern a specific version, but a bug that had been present for a long time and which would have been triggered by an update from an external service. Everything was back to normal by early afternoon. The Mozilla Foundation said it fixed the bug, apologizing to affected users. It was enough to restart the browser to regain its normal behavior.

Until the Mozilla Foundation releases a fix, there were two temporary ways around the bug. The first method was to go to the browser settings under the heading Privacy and Security and unchecking the boxes for sending statistics data. The second required disabling HTTP3 support. To do this, type about:config. in the address bar then go to the line network.http.http3.enabled and pass the parameter to the position False. It was then necessary to quit Firefox and, above all, to restart the computer. In some cases, a simple restart of the machine was enough to solve the problem.

Firefox remains one of the world’s favorite browsers for surfing the web. Developed by the Mozilla Foundation since 2003, it comes in free versions on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS. Now available in version 95 on PC, Mac and Android and in version 40 on iOS, it adopts an interface that is still just as clear and easy to use. Perfectly adapted to HTML5, WebGL and JavaScript, it shows no difficulty in displaying the most complex websites and using web applications and services. The browser also benefits from regular updates every four weeks.

What’s new in Firefox 95?

Version 95 deployed since December 8, 2021 brings a “sandboxing” function or, in French, testing in the sandbox. Called RLBox, it isolates certain sub-components of the browser such as the Hunspell spell checker or the Ogg file container, to prevent them from being compromised by attacks. The browser is also more energy and CPU efficient on macOS and Windows Server. The Mac version is also optimized for video streaming. These developments come on top of the new features introduced in version 94, namely the automatic update without having to open the browser or even the retention of hypertext links when creating PDFs.

What are the benefits of Firefox?

Firefox presents itself as a browser that is both lightweight and stable. It is customizable at will using the many graphic themes offered and also knows how to adapt to the system interface by adopting light or dark mode depending on the choice made. It also gives access to a gigantic catalog of extensions to enrich it and add functions. In addition, by creating a Firefox account, it is possible to synchronize open tabs, browsing history and bookmarks between all devices – computers and mobiles – connected to the same account. Above all, Firefox has never ceased, over the versions, to highlight the confidentiality of its users. With the help of the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) the browser is equipped with tools to limit tracking by advertising agencies or social networks and blocks pop-up windows by default for more security.