Firefox 3.0.12 patches five critical problems

Mozilla on Tuesday released Firefox 3.0.12, an update to the open-source browser that fixes five critical security vulnerabilities and fixes a handful of other bugs.

"We strongly recommend that all Firefox 3.0.x users upgrade to this latest release," Mozilla said on its developer blog. "If you already have Firefox 3, you will receive an automated update notification within 24 to 48 hours. This update can also be applied manually by selecting 'Check for Updates...' from the Help menu."

Version 3.0.12 fixes five critical problems and one high-level security problem, according to the Mozilla security advisory site.

Mozilla is trying to move people to the newer Firefox 3.5, which offers faster JavaScript program execution, new privacy features, and a handful of technologies geared for more powerful Web applications.

And Mozilla is pushing the new browser hard. Security and stability fixes for the 3.0.x series will end in January 2010.

[lennie22]

since lately I have been seeing a lot of critical patches spew out for firefox....but I haven't seen any for IE8...whats going on? I demand an explanation right this minute.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Give it time. All browsers get updated. Safari, Chrome, and IE all will have updates too soon, I'm sure. All except Opera... but only because people forget it's even out there. :) (I kid! I kid!)

[Random_Walk]

* Microsoft saves theirs for Patch Tuesday, unless something really nasty hits before then

* Microsoft has a typically longer cycle to build a patch.

* Meanwhile, good luck ;)

[lennie22]

but random...there has been multiple Patch Tuesdays and I don't remember getting any patches for IE8 except the ones for compatibility view....well lets see what this Patch Tuesday holds.

[Random_Walk]

Look up ActiveX, and get back to us ;)

[G-Skaf]

When you don't hear about something (IE vulnerabilites), it doesn't mean it's not there.

[jake3373]

Okay, so if MS has a patch for a harmful bug on Thursday, they're going to wait until Tuesday to release it?
I wonder how many computers could be hacked in that time...

Another reason to not use IE

[santuccie]

@Penguinisto:

* The reason for Patch Tuesday is to give administrators a predictable cycle for deployment. This cycle occurs once a month, not once a year. Has Apple patched that six-month-old Java issue yet? It was patched months ago for Windows and Linux.

* Granted, there are more ActiveX vulnerabilities than anything else. But the vast majority of Windows users are adequately protected these days. Vista users are still protected out of the box, and three of the most widely used antivirus products include drive-by download protection (Norton, McAfee, AVG). Then there's Invincible Windows, sandboxing, etc. Conficker, probably the most successful worm to date, infected 9-15 million computers worldwide, out of 1 billion.

Vulnerability doesn't mean sitting duck, unless we have an Apple exploit (not that I want this to happen). I'm going to download OS X, and see if I can create a hackintosh in a virtual machine. I plan on testing Sandbox 2.2 for a kernel lockdown technique for the Mac. I would do this for Linux, but there are too many distros to test, and not enough users to justify it. And Linux is better protected than Apple, anyway.

[Spartan_458]

I liked Firefox 3.5.....until every time I tried to use it, it gave me a low memory state error and ran terribly slow. I'm back on 3.0.12, and it works like a charm. I won't upgrade again until Mozilla fixes the problem.

[Draq Wraith]

Yeah the buffer overflow in the javascript engine seems to be plugged but now the PC runs sluggish. When i direct it to the MSNBC site i get nothing but sluggish page loads due to me still being on dial up.

Good luck fixing that!
D~W

[jaguar717]

I don't know which is more of a ***, dial up or MSNBC.

At least they're both finally dying out.

[goodspeed8701]

Use IE fire fox sux.

[lennie22]

come on man, don't start that here, let them use whatever they want to use, if you use IE thats fine, I use IE8, if they use firefox, that's fine too.

[jake3373]

If firefox sucks, use IE as a last resort. Chrome seems the best option for FF haters.

[TechnoMan475392]

@ jake3373

That's because chrome is the anti-firefox. It's sparse, no add-ons, etc. I was a chrome person but then firefox got faster...and I like this special theme...

[vlk4n]

memory overflow problem in recent times has been trouble all browsers firefox per share it was also

[bongsi21]

Firefox 3.5 is a good upgrade compared to the previous 3.0 version but the performance in opening the Firefox 3.5 got a little slow. I see a great future in the newest Opera 10 beta 2 browser a fast and stable program even though its on beta stage.

i like windows 7

[jake3373]

Me too, but I use FF

[jake3373]

And Chrome

[vlk4n]

i like ubuntu or pardus

[faceless128]

i like BeOS

[jscott418]

I am off of Firefox for the time being. Too many crashes and web compatibility problems at times. I am trying Safari and Chrome. You know its nice to have plenty of browser choices. But is it me or is their not one browser out there anymore that just works on all sites? I seem to remember at least Internet Explorer worked. Now you need at least a couple browser in order to get those stubborn sites to work. Who should we blame for this? My take is that its the Web site designers because for the most part all the browsers brag about being web compliant. So why all the rendering problems?

[jake3373]

If site designers followed standards, all sites would work in each browser (providing that the browser follows web standards, too. *cough IE cough* )

[BlitzBoy1120]

All that's keeping Firefox from being the best is the lightness that Chrome has. All that's keeping Chrome from the best is the add-ons. And I doubt we will ever see an adblock add-on for Google Chrome unless it blocks everything but Google Ads... So go Firefox!

[dexter_birdbrain]

Kind of spooky to hear this (I mean so many bugs, security flaws) about Firefox. I lost count of the number of security updates that came out for Firefox 2.x. I think it went up to 2.0.0.19. Even Firefox 3.x went up to 3.0.0.11 after which came Firefox 3.5, finally. But I am still using it and convincing others to use it!

[Spribo]

I don't understand why Firefox 3 should be continued. I mean, Firefox 3.5 should be just an update to Firefox 3, not a "new browser".