Updates for Firefox, Thunderbird, SeaMonkey 'critical'
Last Updated: Thursday, December 21, 2006 | 12:26 PM ET
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"Highly critical" security updates have been released to patch flaws in the popular Firefox web browser and related programs that could allow an attacker to hijack computers running the software.
The Danish security firm Secunia updated its security advisory on Thursday for software distributed by the Mozilla Foundation, citing alerts issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) and Mozilla. "Highly critical" is the second-most severe alert rating on Secunia's five-point scale.
"Mozilla products contain a memory corruption vulnerability related to SVG processing," reads the U.S. CERT note issued on Wednesday, referring to the way in which the software handles imagery known as Scalable Vector Graphics.
"This vulnerability may allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable system."
An attacker seeking to take advantage of the flaws in Firefox, Thunderbird (e-mail and newsreader client) and Mozilla's SeaMonkey productivity suite, would have to convince them to visit a specially crafted website, according to the alerts, including one from Mozilla issued on Tuesday.
The malicious site would crash the software or cause the computer's memory to be corrupted, making the system vulnerable to attack.
Mozilla recommended that users should update installed software to Firefox 2.0.0.1 or 1.5.0.9, Thunderbird 1.5.0.9 and SeaMonkey 1.0.7.
Notification of the updates should occur automatically. People who have turned notification off can obtain updates by clicking on the "Check for updates" item in the Help menu of the Mozilla software, the foundation's alert said.
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