Firefox and Chrome updates spike stability bugs

Bonfire Night alternative browser fixes

Mozilla has pushed out a new version of Firefox that fixes a number of stability bugs that pose possible security concerns.

Firefox 3.5.5, which comes only a week after the release of 3.5.4, addressed a start-up crash problem and crashes in the GIF image decoder of the open source browser, among other bugs (as explained here). The flaws create a possible means to crash browser with malformed code on websites but their main importance is as an irritation that impairs users ability to surf the web without irksome browser crashes.

The cross-platform updates was published on Thursday (5 November) and is available for immediate download. Alternatively Firefox fans will be prompted to update as they surf the web over the next day or so.

A new version of Google Chrome, also released on Thursday, fixes two clear-cut security flaws as well as tackling a few performance and stability bugs, as explained here.

Chrome 3.0.195.32 patches a high risk memory corruption flaws in the Google Gears plugin that might lend itself towards injecting malware into Windows machines that stray onto maliciously constructed sites designed to exploit the vulnerability. The update also addresses a lesser security flaw that means users fail to get a warning that some file types that can execute JavaScript code. ®