A day after the latest version of Firefox was launched — it wasn't. A security problem sidelined Firefox 16, and prompted Mozilla to take it down until the issue can be fixed.
Mozilla suggested that users who have upgraded to Firefox 16 revert to 15.0.1 until it issues a patch, which it said should be automatically pushed out tomorrow (Oct. 12).
"The vulnerability could allow a malicious site to potentially determine which websites users have visited and have access to the URL or URL parameters," wrote Michael Coates, Mozilla's director of security assurance, on the Mozilla Security Blog. The flaw is not being exploited “in the wild,” he added, but the extreme precaution means Mozilla takes the security hole very seriously
Alternatively, Internet denizens can use another browser, such as Chrome or Internet Explorer.
Firefox 16 fixed several flaws in version 15 that left users vulnerable to unauthorized software installations just from normal browsing, the tech blog Ars Technica reported.
Mozilla has removed the download for version 16 and visitors to the download site will be prompted to download Firefox 15.0.1.
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