Mozilla re-releases Firefox 16 after fixing security bug

It’s not been the best week for the folks at Mozilla.

On Wednesday, they released version 16 of their Firefox browser. But a short time later, the Mozilla Foundation discovered the browser was vulnerable to a security breech. And and as such, the foundation temporarily yanked it, according to the Firefox blog:

“Mozilla is aware of a security vulnerability in the current release version of Firefox (version 16). We are actively working on a fix and plan to ship updates tomorrow. Firefox version 15 is unaffected.”

But the bug apparently has been fixed, and according to an update on the Firefox blog, users can resume downloading the new version:

“An update to Firefox for Windows, Mac and Linux was released at 12pm PT on Oct 11. Users will be automatically updated and new downloads via http://www.mozilla.org/firefox/new/ will receive the updated version (16.0.1).”

It’s a small, but embarrassing stumble for Mozilla. Firefox’s appeal in part has been that it’s more secure than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. And it’s the kind of mistake that won’t help Mozilla regain its footing. After being one of technology’s shining stars last decade, the non-profit Mozilla Foundation has seen Firefox’s share of the browser market take a dive as Google’s Chrome browser has surged.