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Firefox 3.6.4 Released With Out-of-Process Plugins

Posted by kdawson on from the bye-bye-crash dept.

DragonHawk writes "Mozilla Firefox 3.6.4 went to general release today. The big new feature in this release is out-of-process plugins (OOPP). This means things like Flash, Java, QuickTime, etc., all run in separate processes, so when Flash decides to crash, it won't take your browser out with it. If Flash starts consuming all the CPU it can find, you can kill it without nuking your browser session. I've been using this feature since it was in the 'nightly build' stage, and it was still more stable than 3.6.3, just because Flash was isolated." And reader Trailrunner7 supplies another compelling reason to download 3.6.4: "Security researcher Michal Zalewski has identified a problem with the way Firefox handles links that are opened in a new browser window or tab, enabling attackers to inject arbitrary code into the new window or tab while still keeping a deceptive URL in the browser's address bar. The vulnerability, which Mozilla has fixed in version 3.6.4, has the effect of tricking users into thinking that they're visiting a legitimate site while instead sending arbitrary attacker-controlled code to their browsers."

8 of 261 comments (clear)

  1. Re:UI Lag by Nadaka · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I have never had problems with firefox having a ton of tabs open.

    I regularly have 15+ tabs, sometimes 50 or 60. The only time I have any issues is if I turn off no script and get some flash or javascript running to slow things down.

  2. Re:Can already kill Flash in 3.6.3 by yuhong · · Score: 5, Informative

    That is because you are using nspluginwrapper to wrap the 32-bit Flash plugin.

  3. Opera! by uid8472 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Has no-one else yet commented to point out that Opera has run plugins in a separate process for years now? Then I guess I have to.

    Not to minimize the accomplishments of the Firefox developers, I mean, and getting this feature to the Firefox userbase is valuable in and of itself, and so on. But there is precedent.

    1. Re:Opera! by luckymutt · · Score: 5, Insightful

      However it it was really all that, it would have a much larger fan base.

      Popularity != better. Since IE has the largest fan base, you're saying that IE is the browser that is "all that?"

      Just because they have had something for a while now, does not mean that Firefox, which is a far more popular browser, getting it is not a big deal.

      Sure it's a big deal. Although it would have been a bigger deal if they were the first on the block to have gotten it.

      Opera people always crack me up.

      FF fanbois always crack me up. Do you people ever get tired of the pissing contest? Ever? And by the way, I am typing this in Konqueror. Suits my needs well enough.

  4. So... by sootman · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... if Firefox crashes will all the plugins keep running?

    --
    Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
  5. single process for all flash by thoughtsatthemoment · · Score: 5, Informative

    It looks like there is a single process plugin-container.exe to run all flash files. Killing this exe will stop playing all the flash files. This means while you are enjoying a show on hulu.com, a rogue flash ad could still spoil the fun.

  6. Privilege separation, anyone? by FraGGod · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Ok, now that we're able to put flash code in a separate proc, my question is: can we cut it's privileges so another (monthly) "zero-day vulnerability" will finally become just a tale to scare little children?
    Strangely enough, with all the concern about flash security, article seem to miss that point.

  7. Re:First by cgomezr · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm afraid Firefox hasn't been the feature leader at all. Tabbed browsing? Opera had it before. Mouse gestures? Opera had it before. Quick dial? Opera had it before. Customisable search bars? Opera had them before. Ad blocking? Opera had it before (although, admittedly, worse than Firefox's). Stored sessions? Opera had them before (and it does restore from crashes without any problem in my case). I could keep enumerating, I'd say 90% of the browser features that Firefox implements are copied from Opera.

    OK, I think Firefox had private browsing before Opera, making it the browser of choice for pr0n (i.e. 99% of the internet usage); but now Opera has catched up on that and offers private and non-private tabs mixed in the same window :)

    BTW, on my machine Opera behaves much better than Firefox with 20+ tabs open (I have 57 right now), it's still snappy and Firefox would be crawling and taking up loads of RAM. But of course YMMV.