Firefox today announced the first security flaw for its recent 1.5 version release.

Security guru’s Packet Storm published a proof-of-concept code that adds large entries into the ‘history.dat’ file of the browser, causing it to crash and freeze the next time it’s launched.

Firefox is generally considered to be the daddy of safe browsers, and the actual fault doesn’t seem that sinister. However, it does leave itself open to Malware which can automatically install unwanted programs masquerading as anti-spyware software, which in turn dually dupes users of their credit card numbers.

Thankfully, fixing the problem isn’t too much bother; you can either erase the file manually or simply set the number of history days saved to zero.

Easy.

09 Dec 2005