Security update to Mozilla Firefox

[VulcanRider]

NEW YORK (AP) -- A new version of the Mozilla Firefox browser fixes a flaw that made users vulnerable to online fraud.

The flaw allowed fraudsters to set up fake Web sites with names indistinguishable from legitimate companies.

It worked because, to a Firefox user, a Web address with one Cyrillic letter in place of the Latin-script letters used in English could look indistinguishable from an address written completely in Latin script. For instance, a Cyrillic "a" looks just like the Latin "a," but if used in a Web address, it will send the surfer to a different site.

Read more here

Get the updated version Firefox 1.0.1 here

[Bungleau]

Thanks for the heads-up. Updating now...

[Xen]

I have a question. When you download the latest version can you delete previous ones?

[LennonCook]

Xen, not only can you delete previous versions, you should uninstall them and delete the install folder. This is due to a bug that has recently been fixed on the CVS trunk, which is where Firefox 1.1 will be built from later this year (read: this is an issue for now, but shouldn't apply to 1.1).
You won't loose your bookmarks, prefernces, or extensions/themes doing this.

Windows users shuold be able to get this from Firefox's autoupdate functionality, which is most of the reason I haven't posted about this myself, even though it's been out for a few days.

And some stuff that article is very unclear about:
1) It *is* possible to tell the URLs apart, they just look very similar.
2) In reality, this isn't Firefox's problem, or Opera's, or any other browser vendor's. The standards which allow it explicitly warn that it may be possible (these were published several years ago), and warn domain name registrars to be careful of allowing domains that look similar to existing ones...

[Xen]

Thank you very much LennonCook. I'll do it right away. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Bungleau]

Interesting, LennonCook. I just installed it over my previous version of FireFox, and I don't appear to be seeing any problems. Is there something I should be wary of?

Also, where's the auto-update functionality? I went looking for it, but I couldn't seem to find it. Any pointers will be greatly appreciated [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Stratos]

Bungleau, check for any new symbols on the right of the task bar of your Browser. I got a small pop-up which told me of a critical update, then a new small red icon showed up on the right hand on the taskbar. Just click on this icon to begin the update.

[Bungleau]

Thanks, Stratos. I didn't see any new symbols, but I did find the update option buried under Tools, Options, Advanced. Upgrading *this* machine now... [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Ivelliis]

I uninstalled Firefox 1.0, then it prompted to delete the C:/Program Files/Mozilla/ Directory (or something) so I clicked ok. I installed Firefox 1.0.1, no problems so far. I went on a site, which needed Macromedia Flashplayer 7.0. I clicked "Install Missing Plugins" and it just stayed on "installing plugins" for ages. I tried manually downloading + installing it, but no luck. Any ideas?

[Edit] Nevermind, I got it working [/Edit]

[ 03-05-2005, 02:09 PM: Message edited by: Ivelliis ]