“No software is free from bugs” and that statement holds true for the mighty Firefox too. Yesterday the Mozilla Foundation released Firefox 3.0.1, the first update for Firefox 3.0, patching some of the known vulnerabilities. It mainly addresses several security and stability issues. A update was also released for Firefox 2.0 users upgrading them to 2.0.16.

The two critical patches deal with remote code vulnerabilities and command line URLs spawning tabs when Firefox is not running. MFSA 2008-34 is the first critical patch. It was reported via TippingPoint’s Zero Day Initiative, and centers on issues with Mozilla’s internal CSSValue array data structure. An attacker can create a large number of calls to common CSS objects, triggering a crash of the browser when it attempts to free the CSS object while still in use. The resulting crash could be used to execute code on the system.

The second critical issue comes from Billy Rios, who reported that, “if Firefox is not already running, passing it a command-line URI with pipe (”|”) symbols will open multiple tabs. This URI splitting could be used to launch chrome:i URIs from the command-line, a partial bypass of the fix for MFSA 2005-53 which was intended to block external applications from loading such URIsi,” Mozilla explains. The vulnerability in MFSA 2005-53 remains patched however.

“For example, web browsers normally handle file: URIs themselves, or block them from web content altogether, but this flaw enabled attackers to pass them from another browser into Firefox. In Firefox 2 scripts running from file: URIs can read data from a user’s entire disk, a risk if the attacker could first place a malicious file in a guessable location on the local disk. Rios demonstrated that the so-called “Safari Carpet-bombing vulnerability” could be used for this, as well as other techniques that do not rely on that now-fixed Safari vulnerability,” the advisory added.

Internal testing on Firefox 3.0 also showed that Rios’ research can be combined with various vulnerabilities to trigger code execution. “In Firefox 3 scripts running in local files have limited access to other files, almost entirely mitigating the file: attack. However, combined with a vulnerability which allows an attacker to inject script into a chrome document the above issue could be used to run arbitrary code on a victim’s computer.”

Firefox 3.0.1 Updated

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Eventhough Shiretoko, is going to have Visual Tab switching feature inbuilt, it will be still some more months before we get the stable release. Till then Ctrl-Tab extension should satisfy the Firefox Tab addicts. This extension emulates the Alt+Tab feature which helps to switch between windows in most of the operating systems. It is much more faster in Firefox 3 than the previous versions.

Pressing [Ctrl]+[Tab], brings up a thumbnail preview of the tabs, and repeated presses of [Tab] proceeds in the order of tab usage. Releasing the [Ctrl] selects the particular Tab window. Holding the [Tab] makes the scroll faster. Press [Shift] to make the scroll in the reverse order.

For those who want to see all the tabs present in the present Firefox session, just press [F4] or the List all Tabs button in the right end of Tab bar to bring up a grid view of all the tabs. There is a filter option also thrown in for the hardcore Tab addicts.

I am using this add-on in Firefox 3 and really recommend all to try it out for yourself. It’s worth the effort.

Download Ctrl-Tab

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Finally the day has arrived and final release of Firefox 3 is out on open and IE is getting its butt kicked left and right.

Mozilla Foundation had conducted its PR greatly but the execution was poor. First the time of release was not officially announced and all the eastern hemisphere netizens had to guess the whole day when Firefox 3 was getting out and finally it dawned that it would be midnight for most. The time came and when I went will all anticipation, all I got was server time outs and after a few reloads and refreshes,  I was met with this sweet outage page.

OK this was not a great surprise since everybody was trying, the Mozilla servers were melting with the load. But the real surprise was when after nearly an hour of reloading the browser, I finally met with a page to download Firefox but alas it was Firefox 2. The page design was for Firefox 3, but the release was 2.0.0.14

So after another disappointment, I got back to reloading, refreshing and after nearly another one hour got the sweet link for a download and installed it finally. Did another download in my other system and finally got it also up and running.

So after doing my duty to the Mozilla’s Community decided to check out how the Download day was going on. The total downloads till 00:45 GST on 18th June 2008 was 1,861,546 downloads. UAE - 1480, Afghanistan - 0, Iraq - 62, Mynammar - 0, Iran - 6422, Sudan - 54, Somalia - 0, Cuba - 414, Oman - 0, Mongolia - 0, North Korea - 0

For who needs to show around that they did their part on the download day, you can flaunt it here. You will get a certificate like this one below.

Update : The time is 10:30 AM on 18th June 2008, nearly 12 hours after the launch of Firefox 3 and the stastics for the downloads are as below

Total Downloads : 4,462,863

UAE - 2400, Afghanistan - 62, Iraq - 101, Mynammar - 211, Iran - 133,500, Sudan - 73, Somalia -  Still 0, Cuba - 557, Oman - 212, Mongolia -281, North Korea - Still 0, Chad - 0,

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There is a lot of news about browsers these days… Firefox 3, Opera 9.5, Internet Explorer 8 and now its time for Safari 4. Apple unveiled its next version of the third most popular browser on Earth in WWDC 2008. Presently it is available only to the registered developers at Apple Developer Connection. With the present roadmap it is likely that Safari 4 might be released before Snow Leopard.

I downloaded and tried it out today and I should say I am impressed. It is a potential Firefox beater. No wonder, Safari is termed as “fastest browser”. It is quite lite with all the basic features built-in. Right now I am blogging with Safari 4 and I do have a feeling that I might switch over to Safari 4 only for writing posts. It is quite responsive and even Firefox RC3 didn’t match with this performance. In two words — “Smooth Operator”

According to Apple fans, the javascript implementation of Safari 4 is 53% faster than the previous versions. Thanks to SquirrelFish, a open source javascript rendering engine. It replaces old WebKit 3.1 implementation. That makes this edition of Safari much better than the Firefox 3’s SpiderMonkey engine.

The ability to save webpages as a desktop application is also a notable addition. So if you are a person who constantly saves webpages then Safari 4 is the thing for you.

The spell check along with Grammar check is a must tool for a blogger. One of the major reasons why I would be using Safari for my posting. Other features include more options for new windows and tab, full page zoom and other unexplored features.

You can download your copy of developer preview of Safari 4 from Apple Developer Center if you are a registered developer.

Source : [macnn]

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The entire community living in the eastern hemisphere of the globe have to wait a little longer to taste the final release of Firefox 3. According to the Mozilla blog, the record attempt will start at 10:00AM PDT [05:00PM UTC] [10:30PM IST] [09:00PM GST] on June 17th 2008 CE. But do remember you have entire tomorrow also to download.

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I am yet to download the official release of Gran Paradiso, the Mozilla Foundation’s developers are already discussing about the next update to Firefox. Going with the tradition of naming Firefox projects with place names, the Firefox 3.1 project is named as Shiretoko after the Japenese National Park in the north eastern tip of the island of Hokkaido, Japan. The word  in native tongue means “end of earth”. 

Shiretoko is a minor update to the Gran Paradiso which would be running the Gecko 1.9.1 Engine and most of the features that didn’t make in time to the 3 release.

• One of the major feature would be visual Tab switching. For now Ctrl+Tab extension serves the purpose in Gran Paradiso. This feature would be integrated into the browser along with Tab searching and filtering.
• There are lot of features for Tagging which include bulk tagging, tag autocomplete, lightweight tagging UI, Advanced Search UI.
• In the add-ons divison there would be enhanced compatibility checking during upgrades which means we might have to really wait till the developer makes the extension compatible than we doing it ourselves

The entire feature list of this release can be obtained from the Mozilla’s planning center for Firefox 3.1. The nightly builds of alpha release 1 can be obtained from Mozilla’s FTP servers here. It will be installed under the name of Minefield, the codename for Mozilla’s testing builds.

Source : [Mozilla Wiki]

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With the everybody getting ready for Firefox 3 release tomorrow, Google silently seems to have updated their Toolbar extension to accommodate the latest version. Even though according to the version info in the official site is still carrying the old version number of 3.0.20070525, the version that is being offered for download is 3.1.20080605W

There has been no significant changes in the layout or any new features in this release but still for those who jumped the wagon with Firefox release candidates and had been handicapped without this, it would be a relief.

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