Firefox 1.5.0.5 started a few minutes ago to spread itself to users worldwide through the browser’s Auto-Update functions.

Bringing forth several security improvements, better overall stability and minor changes related to localization, Firefox 1.5.0.5 is dubbed a “security update that is part of our ongoing program to provide a safe Internet experience for our customers” by the Mozilla Foundation.

Some of the security fixes address Javascript-related vulnerabilities, Native DOM flaws and some crashes due to memory corruption.

Check below for more detailed information.

*** FIXES IN FIREFOX 1.5.0.5 ***

MFSA 2006-56 chrome: scheme loading remote content
MFSA 2006-55 Crashes with evidence of memory corruption (rv:1.8.0.5)
MFSA 2006-54 XSS with XPCNativeWrapper(window).Function(…)
MFSA 2006-53 UniversalBrowserRead privilege escalation
MFSA 2006-52 PAC privilege escalation using Function.prototype.call
MFSA 2006-51 Privilege escalation using named-functions and redefined “new Object()”
MFSA 2006-50 JavaScript engine vulnerabilities
MFSA 2006-48 JavaScript new Function race condition
MFSA 2006-47 Native DOM methods can be hijacked across domains
MFSA 2006-46 Memory corruption with simultaneous events
MFSA 2006-45 Javascript navigator Object Vulnerability
MFSA 2006-44 Code execution through deleted frame reference

*** RELEVANT LINKS ***

Download Firefox 1.5.0.5 for Windows (.exe installer, English, 4.9MB)
Download Firefox 1.5.0.5 for Mac OS X (.dmg, Universal Binary, English, 16MB)
Download Firefox 1.5.0.5 for Linux (.tar.gz, English, 8.1MB)

Download Firefox 1.5.0.5 for your operating system (.exe installer, defaults to your language, if build available)
Download Firefox 1.5.0.5 for your operating system (.exe installer, choose the desired language)

Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.5 Release Notes

Opera 9 Final has been released yesterday with a horde of interesting new features and improvements.

The highlights of this version – tagged build 8501 – are, by far, Bittorent support, the powerful and interactive content blocker and the widget engine, all explained in more detail below.

The installer is quite polished, with an optimistic feeling to it, and, in case you have an older version of Opera installed, offers the option of installing 9.0 as an upgrade or as a separate program, a helpful option if you want to keep both versions available to make the transition somewhat smoother.

A very interesting addition is the tab preview, which basically displays a thumbnail of a tab’s contents along with a couple of other bits of information when the tab is hovered with the mouse.

The Bittorent support in Opera 9 eliminates the need for a standalone Bittorent client. Bittorent links are picked up on the fly by the browser. However, some users may still prefer to stick to traditional programs such as uTorrent and Azureus for this task. (Traditional AND memory-hungry in Azureus’ case.)

The content blocker is a sneaky and powerful sidekick on your web endeavors. It allows per-URL content blocking and takes care of useless images and annoying Flash animations – for good. Just right click on the page, read the short instructions and click/shift-click the baddies. They’ll never work in your town again.

Widgets are more and more becoming a thing users fear is going to be implemented in their favorite application. Why feared? Well, mostly because the ability of having tremendous fun playing Tetris or Snake from within your email reader or web browser is going to bring some overhead into the software as well. Yes, you’re going to have the time of your life feeding that little worm his favorite snack (black square dots), but if the software gains crashing and memory leaking super-powers in the process you might want to reconsider.

Opera is yet another victim of the widget-trend and includes some default little applications such as news readers, clocks and mini-games, nothing out of the ordinary. There is a game though, Circular Tetris, that kept me busy for about 3 minutes, so I guess that’s cool.

Voice support transforms Opera into an obedient servant, but only after you install a fatty 11MB plugin. Once you do so, you get to verbally command your brand new virtual Lurch to reload pages or even read up texts.

There’s a lot more to be said about Opera 9 so, even if I’m going to wrap this up now, you should expect a full-blown, hands-on, widget-thrashing, content-blocking, torrent-downloading crocodile-wrestling review sometime soon.

*** RELEVANT LINKS ***

Download Opera 9 for Windows (.exe installer, 4.6MB)
Download Opera 9 for Linux i386 (various distro packages)
Download Opera 9 for Mac OS (.dmg, 13MB)
Download Opera 9 for other platforms

As described in the Firefox 2.0 roadmap, the first alpha release (2a) was launched in Q1 2006 (21st of March). Carrying on the established naming tradition (Firefox 1.5 - Deer Park), this “pre-feature complete alpha” is codenamed “Bon Echo“.

Intended as a testing-only release, Bon Echo Alpha 1 is targeted to web application developers and members of the Firefox testing community. Consumers should stick to the Firefox 1.5 series.

According to the aforementioned roadmap, the first feature complete Alpha will be launched in early Q2 2006, while release candidates be available in late Q2 2006.

*** WHAT’S NEW IN BON ECHO ALPHA 1 ***

- Changes to tabbed browsing behavior
- New data storage layer for bookmarks and history (using SQLlite)
- Extended search plugin format
- Updates to the extension system to provide enhanced security and to allow for easier localization of extensions
- Support for SVG text using svg:textPath
- List of notable bug fixes

*** RELEVANT LINKS ***
Bon Echo Project Homepage
Download Bon Echo Alpha 1 for Windows (.exe - 4.9MB)
Download Bon Echo Alpha 1 for Mac (.dmg - 9.5MB)
Download Bon Echo Alpha 1 for Linux (.tar.gz - 8.2MB)