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Firefox 0.10.1 Released, Fixes Security Hole

_xeno_ writes "Firefox 0.10.1 was released today to fix a security flaw that could potentially allow a malicious site to erase files from the user's Download directory. If you already have Firefox 0.10 installed, you can go to Tools, Options, and choose Advanced, go to Software Updates and choose Check Now to grab the patch."

42 of 441 comments (clear)

  1. done already! by tuggy · · Score: 5, Informative

    upgrade done in 3 seconds!
    this is what i call being secured :D

    1. Re:done already! by scat-cat · · Score: 3, Informative

      It stopped a popup. The bar alerts you so that you can allow popups from the sites you want.

    2. Re:done already! by jd142 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Apparently software version numbers don't work like "real" numbers. ;) In other words, those aren't decimal places, their merely dividers. .1 is not equal to .10. The order goes .1, .2, .3, .4, .5, .6, .7, .8, .9, .10, .11. 0.10.0 came out about 2 weeks ago.

    3. Re:done already! by Epistax · · Score: 2, Informative

      If you go to Tools, Options, Web Features and 'Allowed Sites' next to "Allow websites to install software" you will get a list. By default this list only contained update.mozilla .org, and not www.mozilla .org, so when I hit the link in the subject of this topic I followed the "click here" on the next page to install the patch. That page was on www.mozilla .org, not update.mozilla .org. Incidentally that link took me to http://ftp.mozilla .org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/0.10.1/patch es/259708.xpi which I have not added to my accepted software install list, yet it didn't have a problem with doing it. It seems only to care about where the originating link is, and not to where it points.

    4. Re:done already! by ricotest · · Score: 2, Informative

      I must be the only one who realises Windows Update has the exact same system. It shows up an icon, downloads the updates, asks you to install them, and they get installed.

      Maybe slightly more than three seconds but just as painless...

      Same goes with Gentoo and Debian package systems, if you add a cronjob to do it.

    5. Re:done already! by ZeroPost · · Score: 4, Informative

      To be fair, Windows Update scans for updates to a lot more software than Firefox.

      Firefox can scan a lot faster than Windows Update because it is only checking for updates to a single program.

      Of course, Microsoft could make an option within IE to scan for IE-only updates, which would make updating IE much faster, but they don't.

    6. Re:done already! by boredMDer · · Score: 2, Informative

      http://boredmder.com.nyud.net:8090/~pmohr/images/s mart%20firefox.png

    7. Re:done already! by Feztaa · · Score: 2, Informative

      1.0PR is definitely a high quality release, I would suggest you try it. Many bugs that bothered me in 0.9.3 have been fixed.

      But, the name "1.0PR" is purely a marketing thing. The actual version number is 0.10, as you can see in the "Help -> About Firefox" screen where it says this:

      "Firefox version 1.0 preview release"

      followed by:

      "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20040914 Firefox/0.10.1"

      That about sealed the deal there. The HTTP_USERAGENT string says 0.10.1, but the fancy-schmancy title says 1.0PR. That tells me, basically, 0.10 is the actual technical version number, "1.0PR" is marketing fluff.

    8. Re:done already! by AstroDrabb · · Score: 4, Informative
      The update thingy also tells me that 1.0 PR is available and I should download it. The only problem is that I am already running 1.0 PR
      Not the latest version. If you look at your User Agent (click Help -> About Mozilla Firefox), you will see Firefox/0.10 at the end of your UA. If you go and download the latest version that includes this fix, the new UA will be Firefox/0.10.1.

      I ran into this same problem with the update under Linux. MS Windows users won't run into it since they are running as local Admin or have write permissions to the firefox directory. When I ran it as root, it worked fine so I take it the update needs to write to the root firefox directory it probably then updates your firefox profile. As a normal user you cannot run the update and it never writes to your profile. I think it was just a poor update design for this one update. Hopefully the firefox team will fix it or fix this issue for future updates.

      You could grab the latest firefox tarball from here and just untar it into your current firefox installation folder and restart.

      --
      If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land,
      it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. -James Madison
  2. Re:WTF?? by MikeBabcock · · Score: 4, Informative

    For all the people who didn't bother reading the last article ...

    Firefox 1.0 has *not* been released yet.

    The current (Firefox 0.10.x) is a preview of what will become 1.0 when it is released (thus PR).

    --
    - Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
  3. Re:Am I the only one . . . . by wongn · · Score: 5, Informative

    It is quite confusing. I believe that 1.0PR was called 0.10 in order to distinguish it better from 1.0RCs and above. THe program actually calls itself "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20040913 Firefox/0.10.1", as in 0.10.1, but the "laymans" name is 1.0PR... you could say ;)

  4. Re:This may sound stupid... by dwhitman · · Score: 4, Informative
    But what exactly is the worry here? It deletes files in your download directory? Does that really matter? Could someone enlighten me on why its worth the bother to uninstall and reinstall for this?

    1. Suppose your download directory isn't dedicated to just downloads. Any files in that directory are vulnerable.

    2. You don't need to uninstall and reinstall. As the article says, just go to tools: options: advanced: software updates and hit the Check Now button

  5. Re:These hurt... by kryptkpr · · Score: 5, Informative

    You must not be aware that the mozilla foundation has put out a bounty where they reward security researchers $500 for finding critical remotely-exploitable vulnerabilities and reporting them.

    What you're seeing are the results of this program.. people are finding bugs, submitting them, and the bugs are being fixed before blackhats can exploit them.

    This is a very wise decision on the part of Mozilla considering how close they are to a v1.0 release.

    --
    DJ kRYPT's Free MP3s!
  6. On Linux the advanced items are ... by 3seas · · Score: 4, Informative

    ... under the main menu edit, then preferences ... then advanced... to Software updates

  7. Probable bug . . . . by theparanoidcynic · · Score: 5, Informative

    I ran this thing last night forgetting that Firefox was installed to a location that user accounts can't write to.

    Seeing the error mesage and remembering this fact I lit Firefox as root and ran the update. This left Firefox mangled and incapiable of downloading things from the user accounts.

    The moral of the story: do be careful using the update thingy. Now, off to fill out a bug report.

    --
    Only in a Slashdot fantasy can a Slackware install turn into several hours of sex . . . . .
    1. Re:Probable bug . . . . by aonifer · · Score: 4, Informative

      I just installed the fix as root, closed Firefox, reopened Firefox as root to verify that the fix was applied, then closed it and reran as a regular user. The regular user account doesn't know that the fix was applied (the red button is there and when I click on it, it says it needs to download the fix). Either there's some kind of permissions problem, or the update information goes into root's profile, and not system-wide.

    2. Re:Probable bug . . . . by aonifer · · Score: 2, Informative

      It turns out it's a permissions problem. If you check ${FIREFOX_HOME}/install.log, you see it replaces components/nsHelperAppDlg.js and installs defaults/pref/bug259708.js. In my case, they both were readable only by root. I just did a "chmod +r" on those files and now it works fine.

    3. Re:Probable bug . . . . by Myen · · Score: 2, Informative

      Don't change app.extensions.version as that might render some extensions obsolete (when you try installing them later).
      For reference, the XPI only makes these changes:

      pref("app.version", "0.10.1");
      pref("general.useragent.vendorSub", "0.10.1");

  8. Re:Version numbers seem odd? by LnxAddct · · Score: 2, Informative

    While your logic is good, your reasoning is wrong. This is just version 0.10.0 also known as 1.0PR with a security update which bumped it up to 0.10.1. Doesn't have anything to do with dates, just a coincidence.
    Regards,
    Steve

  9. Re:Don't have that menu option by tuggy · · Score: 4, Informative

    yes.
    i guess thats because of the gnome integration..

  10. Re:This may sound stupid... by compwizrd · · Score: 4, Informative

    because firefox on windows uses the Desktop as the default download location.

  11. Linux users, take note by dacarr · · Score: 4, Informative
    Another user has pointed out that the Advanced option is under Edit|Preferences. Note, you must be root to do this - not merely 'su', but 'su -' at the bare minimum.

    If this doesn't work, of course, you'll have to download and install, which is almost as painless as the upgrade frob. The red 'upgrade' icon may still be present, so you'll have to click that so that Firefox will find that all is well with the world.

    As always, YMMV.

    --
    This sig no verb.
    1. Re:Linux users, take note by tuggy · · Score: 4, Informative

      sudo firefox and then automatic upgrade did the trick for me :)

  12. Re:Nope by kryptkpr · · Score: 3, Informative

    Thunderbird cannot execute .VBS (Microsoft VB Script) files.

    --
    DJ kRYPT's Free MP3s!
  13. Re:These hurt... by lachlan76 · · Score: 4, Informative
    13 security advisories in the last 6 or so months isn't a good look.

    And how many are there in IE that we haven't found yet? The dangerous exploits are the ones we don't know about.
    And besides, do you expect Secunia to have all the security flaws from when IE was in beta? Or do you find it strange that a beta product has had more security flaws found in the last 6 months than the one that's been around and insecure for years.

    Not to mention that none of the advisories were ranked "extremely critical", and only 2 were critical.

    Not to bad for a beta product. Also (from Secunia):
    1. Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 with all vendor patches installed and all vendor workarounds applied, is currently affected by one or more Secunia advisories rated Extremely critical
      Currently, 19 out of 60 Secunia advisories, is marked as "Unpatched" in the Secunia database.
    2. Mozilla Firefox 0.x with all vendor patches installed and all vendor workarounds applied, is currently affected by one or more Secunia advisories rated Less critical
      Currently, 2 out of 13 Secunia advisories, is marked as "Unpatched" in the Secunia database.

    Which would you trust?
  14. Re:defending this post worth loosing karma by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    If I had mod points this morning I'd mod both you dumb motherfuckers down. Grandpa I'd mod flamebait for asking such a stupid fucking question (Remote attackers can delete files. Why should I bother to upgrade?), and you I'd mod offtopic, which is how all "mod parent x" posts should be moderated.

  15. Re:When... by aliebrah · · Score: 4, Informative

    In a few days, you'll be able to see the full bug report here:

    http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2597 08

    Currently, it's not scheduled to be marked as public before 4th October. It's still marked as private so that people have an opportunity to upgrade before the details are made public.

  16. Re:Nope by CrazyDuke · · Score: 2, Informative

    ...or you could have norton which stupidly and automatically deletes the file the vbs is in and pops up a window saying repair successful. AKA your inbox.

    --
    Any sufficiently advanced influence is indistinguishable from control.
  17. Re:Am I the only one . . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    The numbering scheme is XX.YY.ZZ

    XX is the major version.

    YY is the minor version.

    ZZ is for small patch updates.

    0.10.1 is the tenth minor version and has had one patch.

  18. Re:When... by Stuwee · · Score: 3, Informative
    I'm just curious if anybody knows how long this patch took to be released.
    Looking through Mozilla's Bugzilla, it would seem as if the bug was first realised on the 23rd of September in a comment to bug 240068, and then had a seperate security-sensitive -- and hence restricted access -- bug report opened yesterday. I'll leave others to comment on the acceptability.

    Bugzilla links referring from Slashdot are blocked, so the above links will have to be manually opened unless your referrer header is obfuscated.
  19. Re:Automatic stuff == bad security by KarmaMB84 · · Score: 2, Informative

    The browser relies on a trusted sites white list for execution of the type of files in question.

  20. Re:luckily for me... by asa · · Score: 3, Informative

    On the downside, that means that anyone who can pose as the update server gets to insert arbitrary code into your Mozilla install without your knowledge - now that's trojanning!

    Um, no. That is absolutely not the case. The information bar and the trusted sites list is simply a user convenience/inforamtion mechanism like the pop-up blocking bar. After adding a site to the whitelist, a user still has to agree to the software installation. A site cannot "insert arbitrary code into your Mozilla install without your knowledge" because the install doesn't happen until you agree to the install. There are no prompt-less installs.

    --Asa

  21. Re:No go by ricotest · · Score: 2, Informative

    No matter, just visit the press page linked by CowboyNeal and click the link to install the XPI patch directly.

    Firefox will probably block it, but two more button-presses to whitelist www.mozilla.org for patch installations and you'll be able to apply it.

    If this sort of thing continues they should definitely add www.mozilla.org to the default whitelist.

  22. Re:Nope by kryptkpr · · Score: 2, Informative

    No, it sounds like your virus scanner did it.

    A proper virus scanner should be scanning incoming e-mail _before_ it hits your hard disk (through the use of a Winsock LSP), not after. Both Norton and NOD32 implement this type of scanning.

    If it only picked up the virus after it's allowed Thunderbird to write it to disk, and then "cleaned it", then it has effictively nuked your inbox for you since Thunderbird keeps all your e-mail for a given folder in 1 file.

    --
    DJ kRYPT's Free MP3s!
  23. It isn't completely automatic by bogie · · Score: 2, Informative

    The user has to actually initiate the update themselves. You simply see a little red arrow, click it, and then are asked to update. Why is this bad if mozilla.org knows how to secure itself?

    "Who doesn't think that this kind of thing will have endless potential for hackers to exploit in the years ahead."

    Don't you think they've thought of that? Update installs are coded for mozilla.org only and I expect other layered security to come as well. Give them a little credit already. When mozilla/firefox becomes the plauge of the Internet like IE is currently then you can start throwing accusations around. Until then based on their track record I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

    "The ability for a browser to download and execute things on the client automatically is just a huge security risk, regardless of the measures that the designers think they have put in place."

    Just because Microsoft completely fucked up with IE doesn't mean all of IE's features are bad, just not properly secured. Your wrongly throwing away an entire workable concept for all the wrong reasons.

    Also AFAIK there has never been a hack of either Windows Update or Red Hat Network where someone got trojaned for installing an update. Again, expect tighter controls on who can install what in the future.

    " next to unusable on my old workstation (450 MHz, RH 7.3) "

    Yes, and xp runs slow on 5 to 6 year old hardware as well. What your point? The zilla's won't ever be blazing fast on ancient hardware so you might as well move on now. Photoshop CS won't run very well on a P450 either. That's a fairly lame complaint since most users don't have your problem. The Mozilla developers also never claimed it would be a browser for old computing platforms in the first place. I don't know why you assumed that. I have btw used Firefox on that era hardware as well. It's no speed demon loading but useable once it launched. On my PIII 700 laptop with 256MB, a machine only a little newer than users, Firefox runs pretty well and its all I use.

    --
    If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
  24. OS difference` by billybob · · Score: 2, Informative

    Depends if youre on linux or windows. On Windows its tools->options. They really should standardize it.

    --
    Joseph?
  25. Re:Automatic stuff == bad security by jsebrech · · Score: 2, Informative

    The Mozilla press release even has a "click here" link to automatically install the patch! Who doesn't think that this kind of thing will have endless potential for hackers to exploit in the years ahead.

    I don't think that. Because mozilla uses whitelisting to mark servers you're allowed to install from. If you try installing from another server, it throws up an error. A user would have to manually add a server to the allowed list before an exploit could be installed. Ofcourse, there might be a bug in the whitelisting system, but overall I think the approach is reasonably secure.

    Why not just design a browser that works on multiple platforms, using an established cross-platform GUI such as wxWidgets, rather than going away to create a browser and coming back with another new, slow, bloated, universal uber-platform swiss-army-knife UI language...

    Because you can't. I am not aware of any native toolkit that allows you to implement a browser fully compliant with the W3C standards, and wxwindows is even less capable than native toolkits. Mozilla optimizes by using native controls where it can, but if it didn't have the xul toolkit, compliance and compatibility would be a lot worse.

    David Hyatt, who was/is a developer on both the mozilla and safari teams has written about the trouble with native widgets before. It's just not as simple as you would think it is.

    I know, "Do it yourself dude", and plenty of geeks out there just love the customizability of XUL, but truthfully all I want is a fast, small browser. It just seems like everything is getting larger, slower and more bloated these days.

    With modern standards being what they are, firefox is about as good as it gets. We're no longer in the days of html 3.2 (well, ok, slashdot still is, but that's beside the point). A browser nowadays has to do a lot more than just render html.

    But if you think you can do better, please try.

  26. Re:These hurt... by William+Baric · · Score: 2, Informative

    Saying it's a beta product is an excuse, nothing more. 20 years ago, alpha, beta and release had clear significations. Now, it doesn't mean anything.

  27. dude, you were invited, too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative
    http://www.mozilla.org/press/mozilla-2004-10-01-02 .html

    Doesn't this case illustrate that all browsers are equally insecure?

    The Mozilla Foundation continues to have a very strong track record on security. According to Secunia, an independent security monitoring organization, Firefox currently has 1 open security issue, out of a total of 13 security advisories filed in 2003 and 2004. 0% of these are labeled "extremely critical", 15% are labeled "highly critical". For the same period, Secunia lists 16 open security issues out of 44 advisories for Internet Explorer 6.0, 14% of which are labeled "extremely critical", 34% are "highly critical".


    I think that explains it nicely. Can you hear me now?

    I think it's great that we are actually getting bugs *found*, *reported*, and *fixed*. Can you just imagine how dangerously insecure life would be without this kind of performance? Sadly, if you haven't yet switched you don't have to.
  28. Re:Minor Gripe by Myen · · Score: 2, Informative

    Dynamic theme switching was considered too buggy for 1.0.

    (And now, the part that is not a dupe)

    Set extensions.dss.enabled to true in about:config to use what they have so far. Some things might not work completely, but people seem to believe that it works mostly well enough anyway.

  29. Re:Am I the only one . . . . by Spoing · · Score: 2, Informative
    1. Who finds this version numbering scheme damn confusing?

    It's a traditional numbering scheme. I've used similar ones for about 15 years!

    To eliminate some confusion, I tend to use numbers like this ...

    5.02.003.0456

    ... instead of ...

    1.3

    ... since the leading zeros sort more easily!

    The numbers breaks down like this;

    major.minor.beta.build

    Where

    major = public number people can identify
    minor = public revision number
    beta = showing that this is not a formal release
    build = the build number or date of release

    So, you see "Version 5" on the box or at the web site while the software might have an internal stamp of "5.02.003.0456"

    This is a general guide, though. Some folks use only the first two...some use three (with or without build #), and some use five.

    The value of this is that it allows you to sort defect reports, quickly identify if something was formally made public (and tested), or if it came before/after another release.

    --
    A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
  30. Re:Moox 1.0.1PR Release Builds Out Yesterday by sevencarbon · · Score: 2, Informative

    I am moox - the Firefox builder making the localized builds of Firefox. Sorry for the odd uer name of Sevencarbon, but moox was already taken. I just want to point out that there are several 3rd party developers making optimized and customized versions of Firefox and Thunderbird. The include people such as mmoy, JTw, BangBang23, BlueFrye, daihard, pigfoot, scragz, amano, djeter, matlhDam, and MMx. If you want to see the fruits of their efforts or learn about what they working on I strongly suggest you look at the mozillazine forums (http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewforum.php?f=42) or at pryan's forums (http://pryan.org/mozilla/forums/viewforum.php?f=3 ). As a group, we all work tirelessly to make a good product better and I do not think it is fair for the focus to be on one of us since we have all made significant and valuabe contributions to the development of Firefox and Thunderbird.