Mozilla: Security remains on front burner
Thursday, July 19th, 2007The latest version of Firefox fixes several serious vulnerabilities, and Mozilla points to its open-source model as key to being nimble in the security field
By Matt Hines
July 18, 2007
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.