Mozilla Firefox | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Apple has  released  software updates for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and Safari web browser to address two security flaws that it said have come under active exploitation in the wild on older versions of its software. The vulnerabilities, both of which reside in the WebKit web browser engine, are described below - CVE-2023-42916  - An out-of-bounds read issue that could be exploited to leak sensitive information when processing web content. CVE-2023-42917  - A memory corruption bug that could result in arbitrary code execution when processing web content. Apple said it's aware of reports exploiting the shortcomings "against versions of iOS before iOS 16.7.1," which was released on October 10, 2023. Clément Lecigne of Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) has been credited with discovering and reporting the twin flaws. The iPhone maker did not provide additional information regarding ongoing exploitation, but previously disclosed zero-days in iOS have been used to...

Mozilla has announced that some add-ons may be blocked from running on certain sites as part of a new feature called  Quarantined Domains . "We have introduced a new back-end feature to only allow some extensions monitored by Mozilla to run on specific websites for various reasons, including security concerns," the company  said  in its Release Notes for Firefox 115.0 shipped last week. The company said the openness afforded by the add-on ecosystem could be exploited by malicious actors to their advantage. "This feature allows us to prevent attacks by malicious actors targeting specific domains when we have reason to believe there may be malicious add-ons we have not yet discovered," Mozilla  said  in a separate support document. Users are expected to have more control over the setting for each add-on, starting with Firefox version 116. That said, it can be disabled by loading "about:config" in the address bar and setting "extensions.quarantined...

Vulnerability Management (VM) has long been a cornerstone of organizational cybersecurity. Nearly as old as the discipline of cybersecurity itself, it aims to help organizations identify and address potential security issues before they become serious problems. Yet, in recent years, the limitations of this approach have become increasingly evident.  At its core, Vulnerability Management processes remain essential for identifying and addressing weaknesses. But as time marches on and attack avenues evolve, this approach is beginning to show its age. In a recent report, How to Grow Vulnerability Management into Exposure Management (Gartner, How to Grow Vulnerability Management Into Exposure Management, 8 November 2024, Mitchell Schneider Et Al.), we believe Gartner® addresses this point precisely and demonstrates how organizations can – and must – shift from a vulnerability-centric strategy to a broader Exposure Management (EM) framework. We feel it's more than a worthwhile read an...

More than 1.31 million users attempted to install malicious or unwanted web browser extensions at least once, new findings from cybersecurity firm Kaspersky show. "From January 2020 to June 2022, more than 4.3 million unique users were attacked by adware hiding in browser extensions, which is approximately 70% of all users affected by malicious and unwanted add-ons," the company  said . As many as 1,311,557 users fall under this category in the first half of 2022, per Kaspersky's telemetry data. In comparison, the number of such users peaked in 2020 at 3,660,236, followed by 1,823,263 unique users in 2021. The most prevalent threat is a family of adware called WebSearch, which masquerade as PDF viewers and other utilities, and comes with capabilities to collect and analyze search queries and redirect users to affiliate links. WebSearch is also notable for modifying the browser's start page, which contains a search engine and a number of links to third-party sour...

Mozilla has pushed out-of-band  software updates  to its Firefox web browser to contain two high-impact security vulnerabilities, both of which it says are being actively exploited in the wild. Tracked as CVE-2022-26485 and CVE-2022-26486, the zero-day flaws have been described as  use-after-free issues  impacting the Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations ( XSLT ) parameter processing and the  WebGPU  inter-process communication ( IPC ) Framework. XSLT is an XML-based language used for the conversion of XML documents into web pages or PDF documents, whereas WebGPU is an emerging web standard that's been billed as a successor to the current WebGL JavaScript graphics library. The description of the two flaws is below – CVE-2022-26485  – Removing an XSLT parameter during processing could lead to an exploitable use-after-free CVE-2022-26486  – An unexpected message in the WebGPU IPC framework could lead to a use-after-free and exploit...

Mozilla has officially launched a new privacy-focused VPN service, called Firefox Private Network , as a browser extension that aims to encrypt your online activity and limit what websites and advertisers know about you. Firefox Private Network service is currently in beta and available only to desktop users in the United States as part of Mozilla's recently expunged "Firefox Test Pilot" program that lets users try out new experimental features before they were officially released. The Firefox Test Pilot program was first launched by the company three years ago but was shut down in January this year. The company now decided to bring the program back but with some changes. "The difference with the newly relaunched Test Pilot program is that these products and services may be outside the Firefox browser, and will be far more polished, and just one step shy of general public release," said Marissa Wood, vice president of product at Mozilla. Firefox...

Mozilla has finally introduced a mechanism to let Firefox browser automatically fix certain TLS errors, often triggered when antivirus software installed on a system tries to intercept secure HTTPS connections. Most Antivirus software offers web security feature that intercepts encrypted HTTPS connections to monitor the content for malicious web pages before it reaches the web browser. To achieve this, security software replaces websites' TLS certificates with their own digital certificates issued by any trusted Certificate Authorities (CAs). Since Mozilla only trusts those CAs that are listed in its own root store, the antivirus products relying on other trusted CAs provided by the operating system (OS) are not allowed to intercept HTTPS connections on Firefox. In recent months, this limitation continually crashed HTTPS pages for many Firefox users showing them SEC_ERROR_UNKNOWN_ISSUER, MOZILLA_PKIX_ERROR_MITM_DETECTED or ERROR_SELF_SIGNED_CERT error codes when their an...

As promised, Mozilla has finally enabled "Enhanced Tracking Protection" feature on its Firefox browser by default, which from now onwards would automatically block all third-party tracking cookies that allow advertisers and websites to track you across the web. Tracking cookies, also known as third-party cookies, allows advertisers to monitor your online behavior and interests, using which they display relevant advertisements, content, and promotions on the websites you visit. Which makes sense as no one likes to waste time in watching advertisements and offers that are not of one's interest. However, since tracking cookies gather way more information without requiring users' explicit permissions and there is no control over how companies would use it, the technique also poses a massive threat to users' online privacy. To limit this extensive tracking, Mozilla included the "Enhanced Tracking Protection" option as an experimental feature in Octo...

A critical vulnerability resides in the fully-patched version of the Mozilla's Firefox browser that could allow well-resourced attackers to launch man-in-the-middle (MITM) impersonation attacks and also affects the Tor anonymity network. The Tor Project patched the issue in the browser's HTTPS certificate pinning system on Friday with the release of its Tor Browser version 6.0.5 , while Mozilla still has to patch the critical flaw in Firefox. Attackers can deliver Fake Tor and Firefox Add-on Updates The vulnerability could allow a man-in-the-middle attacker who is able to obtain a forged certificate for addons.mozilla.org to impersonate Mozilla servers and as a result, deliver a malicious update for NoScript, HTTPS Everywhere or other Firefox extensions installed on a targeted computer. "This could lead to arbitrary code execution [vulnerability]," Tor officials warned in an advisory. "Moreover, other built-in certificate pinnings are affected as wel...

Microsoft wants Windows 10 users to use its Edge browser , and the company is pulling every trick out to make it happen. In a newly leaked Windows 10 preview release ( build 10568 ) , Microsoft has added a new prompt that appears whenever you try to switch away from default apps, including Microsoft Edge . Considering the wide adoption of Microsoft's newest operating system Windows 10, it seems that users are still hesitant in adopting Edge browser that comes bundled with  Windows 10 . To help encourage a higher adoption of Microsoft's default apps bundled with Windows 10, the software giant seems to be taking some steps. Come, Give Microsoft Edge A Shot!  If you already have Microsoft Edge as your default browser, then installing another rival browser, such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox , and switching the defaults will make a dialog box with " Give Microsoft Edge a shot " appear. The prompt highlights some of the latest features in ...

Mozilla launches Voice and Video Connect with the release of Official Firefox 41.0 Release . After significant improvements done in the Firefox Nightly experimental build of version Firefox 41.0, the stable release has a lot to offer. How would it be experiencing a seamless communication – video and voice calls and text messaging being directly built in your browser? Here's How: Mozilla has launched the stable release of Firefox 41.0 , equipped with project " Firefox Hello " offering free VOIP and instant messaging services through WebRTC ( Real Time Communication ) channel. Firefox Hello had already arrived last year via Firefox 41.0 Beta release with an aim of improving user's experience by providing them with free voice and video calling features, irrespective of additional software or hardware support. By adopting Firefox Hello : Both the parties don't need to have same browsers, software or hardware. No sign-up other than...

A Critical vulnerability discovered in Mozilla's popular Bugzilla bug-tracking software , used by hundreds of thousands of prominent software organizations, could potentially expose details of their non-public security vulnerabilities to the Hackers. So it's time for developers and organizations that use Bugzilla open source bug tracking system to upgrade to the latest patched versions – namely 5.0.1, 4.4.10, or 4.2.15 . Bugzilla is a vulnerability database used by Mozilla as well as many open-source projects and private organizations. Besides patched flaws, these databases also contain sensitive information related to unpatched vulnerabilities reported to organizations. Unfortunately, the researchers at security firm PerimeterX have discovered a vulnerability ( CVE-2015-4499 ) in Bugzilla's email-based permissions process that allowed them to gain high-level permissions on Bugzilla. As a result, it is potentially possible for an attacker to easily access u...

Should we feel happy about it? Let's find out! What Firefox has been thinking of is, it is planning to bring in Google chrome's web browser extensions to support the features of Mozilla Firefox. The parent company of Firefox i. e. Mozilla Foundation has decided to update their add-on and extension infrastructure, making Firefox more capable and user-friendly . Ranked number three, Firefox browser is seemingly thriving to attain the first position. Google Chrome and Internet Explorer are the ones ahead of it, leading to desktops and mobile devices altogether. The move will help Firefox in various ways like: Integration of new technologies like Electrolysis and Servo Protection from Adware and Spyware Shortening the time it takes to review add-ons Functionalities brought by Mozilla According to Mozilla, functionalities that are being brought with the help of modifications in Firefox Add-ons are: Introducing a Powerful add-on WebExtensions API A...

With providing easy accessibility, the battle is not won! Server-side Vulnerabilities have been reported by a security researcher in the popular Pocket add-on that comes attached with the Firefox browser. The security flaws could have allowed hackers to exfiltrate data from the company's servers as well as populate reading lists with malicious links. The Pocket button in the Firefox browser allows you to save links, videos, web pages, or articles to your Pocket account with just a click, making it easier for you to read them later, usually offline. However, the vulnerabilities discovered by security researcher Clint Ruoho was such that it could allow hackers to get an unrestricted root access to the server hosting the application, the researcher wrote in his blog post . For this to be done, a hacker only needs: A browser The Pocket Mobile app Access to an Amazon EC2 Server which costs 2 cents an hour The researcher, with the goal of exploiting the service's main functionality ...

Earlier this week, Mozilla Security researcher Cody Crews discovered a malicious advertisement on a Russian news site that steals local files from a system and upload them to a Ukrainian server without the user ever knowing. The malicious advertisement was exploiting a serious vulnerability in Firefox's PDF Viewer and the JavaScript context in order to inject a script capable of searching sensitive files on user's local file systems . Mozilla versions of Firefox that do not contain the PDF Viewer, such as Firefox for Android, are not affected by the " Same origin violation and local file stealing via PDF reader " vulnerability. The exploit does not execute any arbitrary code but injects a JavaScript payload into the local file context, allowing the script to search for and upload potentially user's sensitive local files. All an attacker need to do is load the page with this exploit and sit back and relax. The exploit will silently steal files in t...

Mozilla has rolled out the latest Version 37 of its Firefox browser for Windows desktop, Mac, Linux and Android operating systems. The new release also adds patches for 13 different security advisories along with some new security improvements as well as user-experience features. The biggest security feature added to Firefox 37 among others is the "Opportunistic Encryption" (OE) for servers and websites that support " HTTP/2 AltSvc. " Opportunistic Encryption (OE) allows Firefox browser to encrypt the traffic over plaintext HTTP connection without any need to authenticate it. This will help you to create, not complete, but some confidentiality from attackers to eavesdrop on your connection. So Opportunistic encryption can be implemented with very minimal changes to an existing IPsec implementation. The move by Mozilla is really a bonus for HTTP users with no encryption measure at all, but still it is not as good as authenticated encryption ...

The Annual Pwn2Own Hacking Competition  2015 held in Vancouver is over and participants from all over the world nabbed $557,500 in bug bounties for 21 critical bugs in top four web browsers as well as Windows OS, Adobe Reader and Adobe Flash. During the second and final day of this year's hacking contest, the latest version of all the four major browsers including Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Apple Safari, were compromised by the two security researchers. Sponsored by HP's Zero Day Initiative program, the Pwn2Own Hacking Competition ran two days at a security conference in Vancouver, Canada. The final highlights for Pwn2Own 2015 are quite impressive: 5 bugs in the Windows operating system 4 bugs in Internet Explorer 11 3 bugs in Mozilla Firefox 3 bugs in Adobe Reader 3 bugs in Adobe Flash 2 bugs in Apple Safari 1 bug in Google Chrome $557,500 USD bounty paid out to researchers The star of the show was South Korean ...

Good news for Firefox lovers! The Mozilla Foundation has introduced a bunch of new features in Firefox to improve browser security with the launch of Firefox 32, now available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android platforms. The new version of Firefox makes the browser even more competitive among others. Firefox version 32 has some notable security improvements, including a new HTTP cache for improved performance, public key pinning - a defense that would help protect its users from man-in-the-middle and other attacks, and easy language switching on Android. PUBLIC KEY PINNING ENABLED BY-DEFAULT In the latest Firefox version 32, Mozilla has enabled Public Key Pinning support by default that will protect its users from man-in-the-middle-attacks and rogue certificate authorities. Public key pinning is a security measure that ensures people that they are connecting to the websites they intend to. Pinning allows users to keep track of certificates in order to specify wh...

Mozilla on Friday notified users of its Mozilla Developer Network (MDN) that the company has accidentally exposed the e-mail addresses and cryptographically protected passwords of thousands of Mozilla developers. The email addresses of over 76,000 members of its Developer Network, along with 4000 "salted" passwords were disclosed through a database glitch that may have been exploited by hackers, Mozilla officials warned Friday. The database glitch caused due to a data " sanitization " process failure, that was lasted for a month beginning on June 23, which inadvertently published the records of members of the MDN and left on a publicly accessible server for around a month until one of the outfit's web developers discovered their presence on a server accessible to the general public around a couple of weeks back, according to a blog post . " As soon as we learned of it, the database dump file was removed from the server immediately, and the process that ge...

Mozilla has officially released its latest build Firefox 31 for all supported platforms, addressing 11 vulnerabilities in total, three of which are marked critical that could have been exploited by hackers to mount remote code execution attacks. Mozilla Firefox recommends its users to install the security update as soon as possible, warning that the three critical vulnerabilities discovered in its browser could be exploited by attackers and leverage them to " run attacker code and install software, requiring no user interaction beyond normal browsing ". CRITICAL VULNERABILITIES The three major vulnerabilities are as follows: MFSA 2014-62 - This is one of the three critical vulnerabilities reported by Patrick Cozzi and get fixed in the newer version of the browser. The vulnerability allows the exploitation of a WebGL crash with Cesium JavaScript library. Much details about the flaw are not known at the time, but Mozilla notes that the flaw cannot be exploi...

The Music Industry, Movie Studios and other companies who create media contents are always concerned with people getting access to their content without paying for it. Last year, On Request of Big Tech companies such as Microsoft, Google and Netflix, The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) defined a new API (Application Programming Interface) called ' Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) ' in HTML5 to aid web-based video services in restricting the rights of users who utilize their services. Now the companies won't need to rely on third-party plugins like Flash and Silverlight to deliver copy-protected movies and TV shows to your browser. Instead, now they have same capabilities of Digital rights management (DRM)  right into the fabrics of the web. All other major modern web browsers, including Internet Explorer, Chrome, and Safari are supporting  Encrypted Media Extensions (EME)  within the web browser since last year, except Mozilla Firefox . Even after criticizing the use...