Mozilla Releases Software Patch for Firefox to Address Security

By: Mary Couchman
Staff Writer
Published: Nov 17, 2008

Mozilla has released a Web browser update for Firefox to fix a security flaw. The software patch addresses a problem that could allow an attacker to access critical PC files. The patch update fixes 11 critical issues with the Internet browser.

The Mozilla Foundation on Thursday released a software patch for the Firefox Internet browser. The Web browser update addresses 11 critical issues. The patch update is available from the built-in updater in Firefox.

Firefox 3.04 addresses a problem that could allow an attacker to gain access to sensitive information on a user's PC. One of the security issues could be used to compromise with computers and steal information. The software patch addresses nine security holes with the Internet browser.

"It requires an attacker to have malicious code saved locally, then have a user open a chrome: document or privileged about: URI, and then open the malicious file in the same privileged tab," Mozilla said in a statement.

Most of the vulnerabilities fixed were related to the Internet browser's layout and JavaScript engine. The JavaScript engine was one of the most dangerous shared vulnerabilities. There was a problem with a buffer overflow bug in the HTTP index format parser which the Web browser update addresses.

The browser update is available for Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac and Linux.