While working to produce the first Release Candidate of Firefox 3.1, Mozilla has made available for download two new releases of codename Shiretoko's precursors. Firefox 3.0.5 and Firefox 2.0.0.19 went live on December 16, 2008, and are now up for grabs along with Firefox 3.1 Beta 2. As it had warned as early as mid-2008 with the launch of Firefox 3.0, Mozilla discontinued supporting Firefox 2.0 as of December 16. In this regard, Firefox 2.0.0.19 is the last release for version 2.0 of the open source browser.

“Mozilla is not planning any further security and stability updates for Firefox 2, and recommends that you upgrade to Firefox 3 as soon as possible. It’s free, and your settings and bookmarks will be preserved. Also, the Phishing Protection service will no longer be available for Firefox 2 users. Firefox 3 offers a free Phishing and Malware Protection service, which will continue to protect you from online scams and attacks,” Samuel Sidler, Quality Assurance engineer at Mozilla, revealed.

Firefox 2.x and Firefox 3.x versions of Mozilla's open source browser have recently been labeled as the most vulnerable pieces of software for the Windows operating system in 2008, in Bit9's Dirty Dozen. With the release of 3.0.5 and 2.0.0.19, Mozilla manages to decrease the potential attack surface of the two browser versions, by plugging a range of vulnerabilities. Three of the security holes resolved in Firefox 3.0.5 were considered Critical, with one rated as posing a High risk, and one Moderate. As far as Firefox 2.0.0.19 was concerned, Mozilla resolved four Critical vulnerabilities, one High, and two Moderate.

“If you already have Firefox 3 or Firefox 2, you will receive an automated update notification within 24 to 48 hours. This update can also be applied manually by selecting 'Check for Updates…' from the Help menu,” Sidler added. “All Firefox 2.0.0.x users are strongly recommended to upgrade to Firefox 3.0.5.”

Firefox 3.0.5 and Firefox 2.0.0.19 for Windows are available for download here.

Firefox 3.0.5 and Firefox 2.0.0.19 for Mac are available for download here.

Firefox 3.0.5 for Linux is available for download here.

Firefox 2.0.0.19 for Linux is available for download here.