Firefox is an open source web browser developed for different platforms, it is coordinated by Mozilla and the Mozilla Foundation.
The release of the new version of Firefox 111, along with which a long-term branch update of version 102.9 has been generated.
In addition to innovations and bug fixes, 20 vulnerabilities in Firefox 111 have been fixed, 14 vulnerabilities are marked as dangerous, of which 9 vulnerabilities (collected under CVE-2023-28176 and CVE-2023-28177) are caused by issues such as buffer overflows and access to already freed memory areas. These problems can potentially lead to the execution of malicious code when specially crafted pages are opened.
Main new features of Firefox 111
In this new version that comes from Firefox 111, built-in account manager added ability to create email address masks for the service firefox relay, allowing you to generate temporary email addresses to sign up for sites or opt out of announcing your real address. The feature is only available when the user is logged in to an account in the Firefox account.
Another of the changes that stands out in the new version is that the support for the "rel" attribute to the tag , which allows to apply the parameter “rel=noreferrer” to the navigation via web forms to disable the passing of the Referer header or "rel=noopener" to disable setting the Window.opener property and denying access to the context from which the transition was made.
In Firefox 111 the OPFS API (Origin-Private FileSystem) is enabled, which is an extension to the File System Access API for putting files on a local file system that are bound to the storage associated with the current site. A kind of virtual FS linked to the site is created (other sites can't access it), which allows web applications to read, modify, and save files and directories on the user's device.
Regarding the improvements in the Android version, it is worth noting that built-in ability to view PDF documents has been implemented (no need to preload and open them in a separate viewer).
When you select strict mode to block unwanted content (strict), Cookie Protection mode (Full cookie protection) is enabled by default, in which an isolated and independent storage of cookies is used for each site, which does not allow the use of cookies to track movement between sites.
The pixel devices that run Android 12 and 13 now have the ability to send links to recently viewed pages directly from the Recent screen.
Redesigned the mechanism for opening content in a separate application (Open in application). Fixed a vulnerability (CVE-2023-25749) that could allow third-party Android apps to run without user confirmation.
Of the other changes that stand out:
- Added an API to save PDF documents open in the built-in pdf.js viewer.
- Added the GeckoView print API, which is related to window.print and allows sending PDF files or a PDF InputStream for printing
- Initial support for the RISC-V 64 architecture has been added to SpiderMonkey's JavaScript engine.
- On the Windows platform, the use of the notification display system provided by the platform is enabled.
Finally if you are interested in knowing more about it of this new version of the browser, you can check the details In the following link.
How to install or update the new version of Firefox in Ubuntu and derivatives?
As always, for those who already use firefox, they can simply access the menu to update to the latest version, that is, Firefox users who have not disabled automatic updates will receive the update automatically.
While for those who do not want to wait for that to happen they can select Menu> Help> About Firefox after the official launch to initiate a manual update of the web browser.
The screen that opens displays the currently installed version of the web browser and runs a check for updates, provided the functionality is enabled.
Another option to update, is if you are a user of Ubuntu, Linux Mint or some other derivative of Ubuntu, you can install or update to this new version with the help of the browser's PPA.
This can be added to the system by opening a terminal and executing the following command in it:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-security/ppa -y sudo apt-get update sudo apt install firefox
The last installation method that was added «Flatpak». To do this, they must have support for this type of package.
Installation is done by typing:
flatpak install flathub org.mozilla.firefox