Mozilla Updates Firefox, Thunderbird

Earlier this week, the Mozilla organization released new versions of its Firefox browser and Thunderbird E-mail client, for all platforms: Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows.

The new version, 24.0, of Firefox includes fixes for 17 identified security vulnerabilities, including seven that Mozilla rates as Critical, and four that it rates as High  severity.  It also includes several performance and stability improvements; more information is available in the Release Notes.  You can obtain the new version of FIrefox via the built-in update mechanism, or download a complete installation package, in a variety of languages.

The new version of Thunderbird, also 24.0, has fixes for 13 security vulnerabilities; Mozilla rates six of these as Critical, and three as High severity.  It also includes some new capabilties, including the ability to watch or ignore message threads, and the ability to zoom the composition window.  There are also some miscellaneous bug  fixes.  More detail is available in the Release Notes.   As with Firefox, you can get the new version using the built-in update capability, or download a complete installation package.

Because of the security fixes included in these releases, I recommend that you update your systems as soon as you conveniently can.

Mozilla Updates Firefox, Thunderbird

Last week, the Mozilla organization released a new version, 23.0, of its Firefox browser, for all platforms (Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X).   The new version fixes 13 identified security vulnerabilities.  Mozilla rates four of these as being of Critical severity, and seven as High severity.

In addition, the new version introduces some new and changed capabilities.  It incorporates mixed content blocking, to protect against eavesdropping and “man-in-the-middle” attacks on secure pages.  It also incorporates a new Options panel for the Web Developer Toolbox.

This version also removes the JavaScript options from the Preferences page, and resets all values to the defaults.  (The controls under about:config  still work, but they are for experts.)  The rationale is that, because JavaScript is so widely used, turning it off breaks an unacceptable number of Web pages.  The suggested alternative, for those concerned about JavaScript-based exploits, is to use the NoScript extension, which allows more selective control.  Although my initial reaction to the Preferences change was negative, on reflection I think this approach, with NoScript, really is the better way to go.   I have been using NoScript myself for several years, and recommend it.

For further information on these changes, please see the Firefox Release Notes.  You can obtain the new version using the built-in update mechanism, or download a complete installation package.

Mozilla also released a new version, 17.0.8, of its Thunderbird E-mail client for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X.  This is a security release, which fixes eight identified vulnerabilities; Mozilla rates two of these as Critical, and six as High severity.  For more information, see the Thunderbird Release Notes.

As with Firefox, you can obtain the new version via the built-in update mechanism, or download a complete installation package.

Because of the security content of these releases, I recommend that you upgrade your systems if you have not already done so.

Security Updates in Thunderbird 17.0.7

Mozilla has released a new version, 17.0.7, of its Thunderbird E-mail client, for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.  This release includes fixes for eight identified security vulnerabilities, four of which Mozilla rates as Critical. The Release Notes don’t really have much else to say.

Because of the security content of this release, I recommend that you update your systems as soon as you conveniently can. You can get the new version via the built-in update mechanism, or you can download a complete installation package here.

Mozilla Releases Firefox 21, Updates Thunderbird

Not wishing, apparently, to be left out of the Patch Tuesday festivities, Mozilla today released the next major version, 21.0,  of its Firefox browser for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux.  This version fixes eight security vulnerabilities, three of which Mozilla rates as critical.  The new version also incorporates some new features, including:

• Enhanced “Do Not Track” interface
• Support for multiple providers in the Social API
• Suggestions on how to improve application start-up time, if needed

Further information on the new version is available in the Release Notes.  You can download installation packages, in a variety of (human) languages.

Mozilla also released a new version, 17.0.6, of its Thunderbird E-mail client, for all platforms.  The new version provides an update to the Twitter API is uses, and also fixes six security vulnerabilities, three of which Mozilla rates as serious.  Further information is available in the Release Notes.  You can download installation packages for all languages and platforms.

Because of the security content of these releases, I suggest updating your systems as soon as it’s convenient.

Mozilla Releases Thunderbird 17.0.5

In addition to releasing the new version 20 of Firefox, the Mozilla organization has released a new version, 17.0.5, of the Thunderbird E-mail client for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.   The new version includes fixes for eight identified security vulnerabilities, threeof which Mozilla rates as critical.  (These vulnerabilities also affected Firefox, and were fixed in release 20; the two applications share a considerable amount of code.)   This version also includes a bug fix for a font size adjustment issue.  More details are available in the Release Notes.

Because of the security fixes incorporated in this release, I recommend that you update your systems as soon as you conveniently can.  You can use the update mechanism built into the software (Help / About Thunderbird / Check for Updates), or you can get a complete installation package, in a variety of languages, from the Thunderbird download page.

Security Update for Thunderbird

Mozilla has released a new version, 17.0.4., of its Thunderbird E-mail client, for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X.   This is primarily a security-fix release; the new version corrects a critical vulnerability in the HTML editor component.  The Release Notes don’t say much more.

Because of the security fixes incorporated in this release, I recommend that you update your systems as soon as you conveniently can.  You can use the update mechanism built into the software (Help / About Thunderbird / Check for Updates), or you can get a complete installation package, in a variety of languages, from the Thunderbird download page.