This past week, Mozilla fixed 6 bugs in the Firefox browser, one of which was considered critical. This critical flaw in turn patched 30 separate memory corruption bugs in the browser layout and JavaScript engines.
Many of the other problems concerned add-ons, or so-called extensions to Firefox, including the Google and Yahoo Toolbars. It seems that hackers can send you malware disguised as an update to a vulnerable extension, if you connect to an unsecured server.
These popular extensions are small programs that add features or functionality to Firefox. They are mostly created by volunteers, and served from Mozilla’s own SSL-secured site. Some, however, are available from unsecured sites, and that could be a problem.
You should minimize your use of these add-ons, and get them from reputable sites such as Mozilla itself. Wireless networks may be particularly at risk, because it’s easy to present you with a fake website.
Some researchers are advising that you remove all extensions and toolbars except the ones you downloaded from the Mozilla Add-ons site itself. To go to this add-on site, in the browser, click Tools, Add-ons, Get Extensions.
Notice that you are now on a page that begins with https… and see the little padlock to the right of the address bar. This means you are on a secure site, although this is not foolproof.
To update Firefox, launch the browser and click Help in the Toolbar. Click Check for Updates, and follow instructions. It is a good idea to check for updates every week or two.
For those of you keeping score, Firefox did well in the last 6 months of 2006, fixing 40 bugs in the browser versus 54 for Internet Explorer. This year, however, 22 flaws have been patched, 9 of which were critical. Only 8 flaws were reported in Internet Explorer 7, of which 7 were critical.
Syd Tash is a noted computer security consultant and author of How to Protect Your Computer Online – A Complete Guide. He has been keeping surfers safe since the last century. Find more information right here: => http://mypcsecuritysite.com
