Jul 17, 2009

First discovered vulnerability in Firefox 3.5

Mozilla has a leak in its latest Firefox browser confirmed. Version 3.5 contains a bug that allow third parties to take over the computer. The hacker who discovered the exploit did so through the tracking system of the server program Bugzilla. The error is in the Trace Monkey JavaScript component that was introduced in Firefox 3.5, Mozilla reported. According to the company code can be activated once the browser to an infected page is surfing, a so-called "drive-by download". Mozilla says that the hacker who leak to the outside brought not the first time. According to the company were the developers of Firefox bug last Thursday when they discovered themselves faced with incorrect code. The Danish security company Secunia called the leak "critical". Exploitable in its ranking system on-a-second-highest label given. The company adds to the description of Mozilla now that it is a leak in the handling of fonts in HTML by Trace Monkey in 'font tags. "The Mozilla developers are working on a solution. Once a fix is, there will be as soon as possible a Firefox update is released, notify Mozilla. Until then, users of Firefox 3.5 operating around the "just-in-time (JIT) component of Trace Monkey off. This is done by "about: config", type in the address bar of the browser, then "javascript options, JIT content" double-clicks and the value of the key to "false" to continue. Even the popular NoScript add-on for Firefox prevents operating the computer can be turned. The patch for the vulnerability is now on the nomination to be included in Firefox 3.5.1. This update was planned for the last weeks of July, but by the publication of Bugzilla forward. Even Internet Explorer has leak Earlier this week, the biggest competitor to Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, again affected by a leak in the Active X component system. Even Microsoft has not released a patch for its security problem exists, which some security experts forces for an alternative browser to select reports The Register. If researchers choose the Security Institute SANS Internet Storm now for Opera, Safari or Google Chrome.