[Merged] Firefox: get involved!

[Richard M]

Originally Posted by ntl customer

Browsing through the Register's article on Mcafee slagging off Bitdefender in their Google advert in Firefox (it all displays really screwed up in IE) and out of sheer boredom I decided to to do a Google search for 'bitdefender'. In I type google.co.uk, type bitdefender hit enter and ... then I get a popup from my newly installed Mcafee Antivirus software telling me that a trojan has tried to plant itself on my system through Firefox.

Screenie below ...



*cough* Erm .... so, what was this you were saying about Firefox being more secure .... *cough*

You got a virus from Google while using Firefox?
Somehow, I don't think so...

[Paul K]

Originally Posted by Richard M

You got a virus from Google while using Firefox?
Somehow, I don't think so...

Nope that looks like someone installed or downloaded something nasty
It does look as though another vulnerability has been found in Firefox though
http://www.mozilla.org/press/mozilla-2004-10-01-02.html

October 1, 2004. The Mozilla Foundation releases an important security update for Firefox. All users should upgrade to the latest version of the Firefox Preview Release. A patch is available for current Preview Release users.

Download information:

* Visit the Firefox homepage to download the latest version of Firefox Preview Release (Firefox 0.10.1)
* Current Firefox Preview Release users: when the update icon () appears in the upper right corner of your screen, just click on it to install the patch, or click here to install it.

Questions & Answers:

*

How does this security vulnerability expose the user?

A malicious hacker who could trick a user into saving a file could delete files from a user's download directory.
*

How serious is this vulnerability?

While this is a potentially severe security vulnerability, user interaction is required to trigger potential harm. This security update is also another example of the Mozilla Foundation identifying and fixing security vulnerabilities before they are exploited by malicious hackers. This type of security vulnerability is very different from cases where a hacker could take advantage of a vulnerability to obtain valuable information from a user's computer.
*

Doesn't this case illustrate that all browsers are equally insecure?

The Mozilla Foundation continues to have a very strong track record on security. According to Secunia, an independent security monitoring organization, Firefox currently has 1 open security issue, out of a total of 13 security advisories filed in 2003 and 2004. 0% of these are labeled "extremely critical", 15% are labeled "highly critical". For the same period, Secunia lists 16 open security issues out of 44 advisories for Internet Explorer 6.0, 14% of which are labeled "extremely critical", 34% are "highly critical".

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[scrotnig]

Well I have to say it's brilliant the way it's rectified immediately and it's even better the way the 'critical updates' icon appears. You click it and it's all done in seconds. Fantastic.

[goldoni]

Just followed the link that Paul gave and strange things did happen. Look at the top of the screen shot †œTo protect your computer, Firefox prevented this site (www.mozilla.org) form installing software on your computerââ‚à ƒâ€šÃ‚¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ÂÂ�

Personally I think Firefox is great, itâ₠¬ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚¢s fast and user friendly. Time to die IE

[nffc]

The security flaw in the end prompted me to get FF 1.0PR- it's great, way better than 0.9...

...there's always a caveat though and that's the DownloadWith extension doesn't work...

I've also got TB 0.9 and that's ace...

[punky]

Preaching to the converted, I know, but I thought i'd share my experience.

I tried Mozilla and Firefox back when I first heard of them, and wasn't overly impressed. Then I got my Mac and wanted to install Mozilla because I thought it would more powerful than Firefox. I liked it (Tabbed browsing ), but was never too happy with it, as it was dreadfully, drearily slow. I thought I would try Firefox. It was OK, much quicker, but a bit basic. So I checked out the extensions, and there are some awesome ones out there, which really make it a good browser. (Image Zoom, Download Them All, Translator, Paste Quote - paste text with forum-style quote tags around them. etc.) So much so i'll probably start using it on my Windows machine. Just thought i'd share that with you guys.

[AsianMan]

I dont know if im blind or something on the firefox site it links the broswer link to this http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ and no where does it says to download and i dont see where it says to download. if anyone knows

The ling is in a big green panel on the top right corner of that page ... It's also on the page you link to if you click the Firefox logo in my signature.

We already have an extensive Firefox thread - I'm merging this one into it.

[Mal]

Originally Posted by AsianMan

I dont know if im blind or something on the firefox site it links the broswer link to this http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ and no where does it says to download and i dont see where it says to download. if anyone knows

Goldini had the same problem. Don't why.

Try downloading it from here.

[paul11974]

Originally Posted by AsianMan

I dont know if im blind or something on the firefox site it links the broswer link to this http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ and no where does it says to download and i dont see where it says to download. if anyone knows

go
here for windows



HERE for linux

and HERE FOR MACS

[Richard M]

The Executive Editor for CNET News.com has switched.
http://news.com.com/2010-1032-5391063.html

[Ramrod]

This is slightly old news but I don't know if it's been reported here.

......a vulnerability in Mozilla Firefox, which can be exploited by malicious people to delete files on a user's system.

The vulnerability is caused due to an error when downloading files and can be exploited to delete all content in the download directory (by default the user's desktop on Windows and the user's $HOME directory on Linux).

Successful exploitation requires that a user is tricked into clicking the "Save" button to download a file.

[downquark1]

Originally Posted by Richard M

The Executive Editor for CNET News.com has switched.
http://news.com.com/2010-1032-5391063.html

Wahahahaha the rest will fall like pins

[Richard M]

Originally Posted by Ramrod

This is slightly old news but I don't know if it's been reported here.

Yeah that was fixed a few days ago.

[Graham M]

I always get crashes and hangs with the Windows version of Firefox, but I am running Firefox in on my laptop and it's working great.