Stack smashing protection is now enabled by default

Jan 29, 2019 14:42 GMT  ·  By

Mozilla officially released today the Firefox 65 web browser for all supported platforms, including Linux, Android, macOS, and Windows, adding yet another layer of enhancements and optimizations to make your browsing experience better.

With the Firefox 65 release, Mozilla enhanced the security of its open-source web browser on Linux platforms by enabling "Stack smashing" protection by default, which could allow malicious actors to take control or corrupt a vulnerable program. The "Stack smashing" protection is also enabled for Android and macOS platforms.

Apart from the stronger "Stack Smashing" protection, the Firefox 65 release also enhances the tracking protection by offering users stricter, custom, and standard options for controlling online trackers through a revamped Content Blocking section shown in the site information panel.

"Simplified content blocking settings give users standard, strict, and custom options to control online trackers," says Mozilla. "A redesigned content blocking section in the site information panel (viewed by expanding the small “i” icon in the address bar) shows what Firefox detects and blocks on each website you visit."

A better Firefox experience for multilingual users

Protecting our online privacy and keeping us secure at all times when we browse the Internet isn't Mozilla's only priority, as the team also tries to make our browsing experience better, especially for multilingual users as Firefox 65 updates the Language section in Preferences to allow you to install multiple language packs.

Users will also be able to order the language preferences for websites and Firefox without having to download any locale-specific versions of the web browser. Other than that, Firefox 65 adds support for the WebP image format to improve the performance and web compatibility of the open-source web browser on all platforms.

The built-in pop-up blocker was improved as well in this release to prevent multiple pop-up windows from opening at the same time when you visit a website. Also, the Task Manager page was revamped to report memory usage for add-ons and tabs, and Firefox will now warn you when you want to close a window even if automatic session restore is enabled.

Linux users can download Firefox 65 right now as binaries for 64-bit and 32-bit GNU/Linux distributions, as well as a source package if they want to compile the web browser themselves. However, we recommend updating to Firefox 65 by installing the latest version from the stable software repositories of your favorite Linux OS.