A single high-impact security bug is addressed in a new version of Firefox, released yesterday by Mozilla.
Firefox 59.0.2 includes several other bug fixes, some of which were causing crashes and performance issues on certain platforms.
For further details, see the release notes for Firefox 59.0.2.
Firefox 59 features performance and user interface improvements, as well as numerous other minor changes. At least eighteen security issues are fixed in the new version.
Particularly welcome are new Privacy and Security settings (Menu > Options > Privacy & Security) that will stop websites from asking to send notifications.
Note: Windows 7 users may have trouble using certain Windows accessibility features, such as the on-screen keyboard, when Firefox 59 is installed. Mozilla is working on a fix for this issue.
Update: Firefox 59.0.1 is also now available. It fixes a single security bug.
Released on January 29, the latest version of Firefox addresses one security vulnerability and a bug related to Windows security policies.
Earlier this week Mozilla released Firefox 58.0. The new version makes significant improvements its graphics engine and Javascript handling, which should translate into faster page rendering, especially on sites that use a lot of Javascript. Mozilla says we can expect further performance improvements in Firefox in the coming weeks.
At least thirty-two security vulnerabilities are addressed in Firefox 58.0. The release notes for Firefox 58.0 provide additional details.
Note that Firefox 58.0 user profiles are not compatible with earlier versions of Firefox, so if you don’t like 58.0 and decide to downgrade, you’ll have to create a new profile.
The full scope of the recently-discovered Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities is still being determined. It may be that hardware or firmware changes will be necessary to truly remove the danger. However, it’s still possible that operating system and application updates can mitigate the risk sufficiently for most purposes.
Once Microsoft demonstrated that the new timing-based attacks could be used in JavaScript code on a malicious web page to read data from other web sites, the folks at Mozilla decided to make that more difficult to accomplish in Firefox. Since the vulnerabilities are timing-dependent, Mozilla reduced the accuracy of several time sources within Firefox that could be used in Spectre and Meltdown based exploits.
The result is Firefox 57.0.4, released on January 4. It’s difficult to know just how helpful these changes will be, but if you use Firefox, you should install this update.
According to the release notes, Firefox 57.0.2 fixes two bugs, neither of which is related to security. And yet there’s also a security advisory for Firefox 57.0.2, which lists two vulnerabilities fixed in the new version.
In the past, Mozilla linked to relevant security advisories on Firefox release notes pages, so presumably someone simply forgot. Fixes for security bugs are a lot more important than fixes for obscure non-security-related bugs, so hopefully this isn’t the new normal for Firefox release notes.
Since this update includes security fixes, it’s a good idea to make sure your Firefox installation is up to date. You can do that by clicking its menu button at the top right (three horizontal lines, sometimes referred to as a ‘hamburger’ button), then choosing Help > About.
It’s been two weeks since the release of Firefox 57, the first version of a new generation for the browser dubbed Quantum, and it’s clearly faster, cleaner, and lighter than its predecessors.
Firefox 57.0.1, released on November 29, addresses a few minor problems in 57.0. The release notes mention security fixes, but the linked Security Advisories page shows fixes that were already in Firefox 57.0. So there’s no particular urgency about this update, unless you’re affected by one of the issues the new version fixes.
I’ve been using Firefox 57 for a few days now, since it was released on November 14. So far, I like what I see. Mozilla is hyping how much faster the browser is, and while it doesn’t feel a lot faster, it is indeed somewhat snappier. Given that Firefox had been getting noticeably sluggish in recent months, this is very welcome.
There are some major changes in Firefox 57: the user interface (UI) has had a major overhaul, using a new set of design guidelines called Photon. Most user interface elements will look familiar, but slightly different. Photon’s main objectives are to improve performance while making the interface consistent across various platforms. You’ll notice new icons throughout (including the main application icon), new positioning of interface elements, new animations, new appearance and behaviour for tabs, cleaned up menus, and new page loading animation.
The ‘new tab’ page has also been improved, and is more customizable. There are some new search engines to choose from, and Google is now the default for search. The on-page search feature now includes an option to highlight all matches on a page.
Numerous other changes in Firefox 57 were made to improve performance, including a new CSS engine called Stylo. CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets, and it’s a set of standards used by web developers to define the style and layout of web sites. Stylo is faster than its predecessors because it uses available processing power more sensibly.
The upgrade process for Firefox 57 is no different than for earlier versions, and you don’t need to do anything special. As always, your existing Firefox profile (which contains your settings, bookmarks, login credentials, history, etc.) will be used by the new version. You may notice that your toolbar has been rearranged slightly, but that’s easy to fix using the Customize feature. You may also see blank spacer elements on either side of the address box, but these can be removed.
I noticed one possible problem: the contents of the address bar drop-down list occupy a narrow section in the middle of the list. The width of that section matches the width of the address box itself. This may have been done intentionally, but in my opinion it looks weird and severely limits the displayable length of addresses in the list.
With version 57, Firefox is no longer quite as sensitive about the use of Windows accessibility features. Previously, running the Windows On-Screen Keyboard would trigger Firefox to disable multi-process mode, resulting in reduced performance. That no longer happens in Firefox 57.
Firefox 57 also includes fixes for fifteen security vulnerabilities, so even if you’re not sure about the new user interface, you should really go and ahead and upgrade.
All in all, it’s good news for Firefox fans: Firefox 57 is faster, and has a cleaner, tighter, and more consistent user interface. I don’t see any reason to hold off on upgrading.
Firefox 57 may even be good enough to slow the recent wave of users, fed up with Firefox’s increasing bloat and decreasing performance, and feeling abandoned after Mozilla recently orphaned thousands of useful add-ons, who have been switching to Chrome and other browsers.
On October 9, Mozilla released Firefox 56.0.1, which is notable in that it’s the first version that will automatically upgrade 32-bit Firefox to 64-bit Firefox. The 64-bit version has been available for a while, but Mozilla chose to hold off automatically upgrading 32-bit installs to 64-bit until now.
As usual, there was no announcement for Firefox 56.0.1 from Mozilla. Not even CERT helped here, since the new version doesn’t contain any security fixes. I learned about the new version when Firefox itself prompted me to upgrade on October 18, more than a week after the release.
On the positive side, the upgrade from 32- to 64-bit Firefox on my Windows 8.1 computer worked flawlessly. Somewhat oddly, the 64-bit version installed in the same directory as the 32-bit version: C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Firefox. On 64-bit versions of Windows, 64-bit applications usually get installed in C:\Program Files. Regardless, I haven’t experienced any new problems or strange behaviour, and my old Firefox shortcuts still work. According to Mozilla, the 64-bit version of Firefox is demonstrably more stable and secure.
Firefox 56.0.1 includes a single bug fix, unrelated to security.
It’s a major new version number, but there’s not much to get excited about in Firefox 56.0, unless the ability to take screenshots in your browser was on your wish list.
Also new in Firefox 56.0 is the Send Tabs feature, which allows you to send web page links to your other devices. Right click on any web page and select Send Page To Device to try it. I suppose it’s easier than sending yourself email.
Starting with version 56.0, Firefox’s web form autofill feature can fill in address fields. I didn’t even know this was missing in previous versions. In any case, this feature is currently only available for users in the USA; it will be made available in other countries in the coming weeks.
Firefox’s preferences (Options) pages have been reorganized and cleaned up significantly. There’s now a search box on the Options page, which should make finding that elusive setting a bit easier. The explanatory text associated with many options has been improved for clarity. The privacy options and data collection choices have been reworked so they are better aligned with the updated Privacy Notice and data collection strategy.
Finally, media on background tabs will no longer play automatically; it will only start playing once the associated tab is selected.
The release notes for Firefox 56.0 have additional details.
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