Firefox: We're smarter than you
There has been a lot of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) surrounding a newly released bug in Firefox. The news has put out a lot stuff regaurding this issue. For those not in the know, Firefox is a free internet browser for windows, mac osx and unix. It's based off of a internet engine called Gecko, which is also free for developers. So the press got wind that there was a bug in the code that allowed a remote source to change your computer or access it. Within hours, Mozilla, makers of Firefox, changed their webpage to solve the problem that no one had figured out how to exploit yet. Not a single virus had been written yet. Nothing had happened, but the bug was discovered. The media started off with the news and made it sound as if we were on the verge of a new Sassor wave or something. They hear the word exploit and tell the world! As it turns out, Firefox took about 3-4 days to fix this problem, even though there was no way to take advantage of it. The moral of the story is: Media needs to research harder before printing. Second, Mozilla is still king.
They have updated to Firefox 1.0.4 now to make sure in the future no one can take advantage of the hole.
Expect big changes in version 1.1.0. They are planning a new background soft update system, which will patch your webbrowser quietly in the background to save you from downloading huge patches when a bug is found.
Patch early, Patch often.
They have updated to Firefox 1.0.4 now to make sure in the future no one can take advantage of the hole.
Expect big changes in version 1.1.0. They are planning a new background soft update system, which will patch your webbrowser quietly in the background to save you from downloading huge patches when a bug is found.
Patch early, Patch often.