Sydney - The new Firefox 16 was taken offline only a day after its release by its maker, Mozilla, after a major "security vulnerability" was discovered.
"Mozilla is aware of a security vulnerability in the current release version of Firefox. We are actively working on a fix and plan to ship updates tomorrow. Firefox version 15 is unaffected," The Age quoted Mozilla's Director of Security Assurance, Michael Coates, as writing in a blogpost.
According to the report, the security flaw in the world's third most popular browser is capable of allowing hackers and malicious sites to see a user's browsing history.
"The vulnerability could allow a malicious site to potentially determine which websites users have visited and have access to the URL or URL parameters," said Coates.
However, the company said that only a "limited number of users are affected".
Despite assuring users that there is "no indication that this vulnerability is currently being exploited in the wild", the company recommended that users downgrade to Firefox 15.0.1 until a fix was released, the report said.
Earlier this morning a patch was released for the mobile version of Firefox running on Android smartphones, following which an update was made available to Windows, Mac and Linux users of the desktop browser, Firefox 16.0.1. It is recommended that users upgrade immediately, the report added.
| Other Articles: |
 |
Windows could soon generate electricity from transparent solar cells (12th Oct, 2012) |
|
US court reverses ban on Samsung Galaxy Nexus in Apple patent dispute (12th Oct, 2012) |
|
Anonymous claims responsibility for 'Facebook hack in Europe' via Twitter (12th Oct, 2012) |
|
Hacker wins $60,000 from Google after finding major security flaw in Chrome browser (12th Oct, 2012) |
|
Vesta becomes smallest known planetary object to have generated dynamo (12th Oct, 2012) |
|
Mars rock touched by curiosity resembles that of Earth’s interior (12th Oct, 2012) |
|
Diamond` planet identified around nearby Sun-like star (12th Oct, 2012) |
|
Samsung unveils Galaxy S3 mini (12th Oct, 2012) |
|
Profile of 'typical Twitter user' revealed! (12th Oct, 2012) |
|
Reduction of food losses by half would feed additional one billion people (11th Oct, 2012) |
|
Women get more stressed by bad news than men (11th Oct, 2012) |
|
People make more calls to nearest and dearest ones during bad weather (11th Oct, 2012) |
|
Glaciers cracking due to presence of excessive carbon dioxide (11th Oct, 2012) |
|
Modern-day deep-sea animals may have evolved earlier than thought (11th Oct, 2012) |
|
Google launches free SMS service for Gmail in India (11th Oct, 2012) |
|
Harvard neurosurgeon saw heaven after near-death experience (11th Oct, 2012) |
|
People who are guilt prone less likely to engage in unethical behaviours (11th Oct, 2012) |
|
Complex brains evolved much earlier than thought (11th Oct, 2012) |
|
Obama campaign on Facebook gaining millions of 'likes' (11th Oct, 2012) |
|
US unveils futuristic system for 'unmanned aerial vehicles' with advanced 'war-fighting' capabilities (11th Oct, 2012) |
|
One in five Brits would prefer starving to being without mobile phone (11th Oct, 2012) |
|
Want plants to grow quicker? Talk to them in Geordie accent (11th Oct, 2012) |
|
Einstein’s theory extended beyond light speed (11th Oct, 2012) |
|
Mice can sing and even change tune like humans (11th Oct, 2012) |
|
Images of exomoons may reveal habitable worlds outside our solar system (11th Oct, 2012) |
|
Jobs |
Blog |
Yellow Pages |
Games |
Jokes |
Chat |
e-Cards |
Astrology |
Articles |
Recipes |
Send Gifts
Today : Thursday - Jun 20, 2013, 05:53pm (GMT+5.5)
