Security vulnerability found in Firefox 3.5; Update: fixed with 3.5.1

Security specialists, Secunia, have released a highly critical advisory regarding a vulnerability in Mozilla's latest version of its popular Web browser, Firefox.

From Secunia:

"SBerry has discovered a vulnerability in Mozilla Firefox, which can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a user's system.

The vulnerability is caused due to an error when processing JavaScript code handling e.g. "font" HTML tags and can be exploited to cause a memory corruption.

Successful exploitation allows execution of arbitrary code.

The vulnerability is confirmed in version 3.5. Other versions may also be affected."

Possible solution
From Secunia:

"Solution: Set "javascript.options.jit.content" to "false" by opening about:config.

Do not browse untrusted websites or follow untrusted links."

As always, be sure to create stable backups of your data regularly. Expect to see a patch for this vulnerability in the next few days from Mozilla.

Resources
Read more about the Firefox vulnerability at Secunia's Web site.

UPDATE: A new version of Firefox (3.5.1) is available that addresses this vulnerability, and is recommended for all Firefox users.

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Resources

Secunia's Web site

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