Critical security hole in Firefox 3.5

There has been a highly critical security hole found in recently released Firefox 3.5. The bug is in newly used Just-in-Time (JIT) JavaScript compiler.

Following are the excerpts from Mozilla blog.

The vulnerability can be exploited by an attacker who tricks a victim into viewing a malicious Web page containing the exploit code. The vulnerability can be mitigated by disabling the JIT in the JavaScript engine. To do so:

1. Enter about:config in the browser’s location bar.
2. Type jit in the Filter box at the top of the config editor.
3. Double-click the line containing javascript.options.jit.content setting the value to false.

Note that disabling the JIT will result in decreased JavaScript performance and is only recommended as a temporary security measure. Once users have been received the security update containing the fix for this issue, they should restore the JIT setting to true by:

1. Enter about:config in the browser’s location bar.
2. Type jit in the Filter box at the top of the config editor.
3. Double-click the line containing javascript.options.jit.content setting the value to true.

Alternatively, users can disable the JIT by running Firefox in Safe Mode. Windows users can do so by selecting Mozilla Firefox (Safe Mode) from the Mozilla Firefox folder.