Latest Update to Firefox Fixes Annoying Crashes

Mozilla released Firefox 2.0.0.12 yesterday, addressing a number of security issues including three that the company deemed critical. If you've been running version 2.0.0.11, you may have noticed your browser crashing with uncharacteristic frequency. These crashes were more than a nuisance, as some of them showed evidence of memory corruption which could be exploited by an attacker to run arbitrary code on your computer. The temporary workaround for this problem, disabling JavaScript, had many users frustrated. However, this latest update fixes several stability bugs in Firefox's browser engine which were apparently causing these crashes to occur.

Another issue with a critical impact resolved in Firefox 2.0.0.12 involves the way the browser treats images in conjunction with a specific type of frame. If exploited correctly, this vulnerability can be used to not only crash the user's browser but also to steal their navigation history and forward it to a third party. The third critical bug that was fixed allowed maliciously crafted scripts to run with escalated privileges, making remote code execution a definite possibility.

Several other security flaws of lesser severity were also addressed, including an issue with stored password corruption as well as the ability to tamper with the browser's timer-enabled security dialogs. Firefox users should upgrade to 2.0.0.12 immediately.