I use Firefox as the default Web browser on my Ubuntu Linux system and am wondering if it’s up to date given the spectre and meltdown issues. How do I check?
You’re in luck because a lot of web browser software – including Firefox – automatically updates every time there’s a new version available, and it checks every time you launch the program. Which, of course, can be a bit of an issue if you are like most people and never, ever restart your browser or computer. My computer restarts maybe once a month and I’m in my browser for weeks at a stretch. If there was a critical security update for something like spectre or meltdown it is foreseeable that it would be days – or even a week or two – before it was applied on my computer.
Then again, I suspect that Firefox checks every so often even if the program’s working and that it wouldn’t automatically download and restart without you confirming, it’s quite likely that it would pop up a window letting you know that a newer version has been downloading and encouraging you to restart to apply the update.
In terms of spectre and meltdown, btw, the Firefox development team says that 57.0.4 was released specifically to patch potential vulnerabilities that these pose and that “in the longer term, we have started experimenting with techniques to remove the information leak closer to the source, instead of just hiding the leak by disabling timers…”
Which leads to the question: Am I running 57.0.4 or greater on my own Linux Ubuntu system? You can’t tell from the Web browser itself:
But here’s a secret: If you go to the URL “about:” then you can see what version you’re running:
So it’s not the most recent version after all, since it should be 57.x not 54.x. To go through the process of updating it I could restart the browser and hope, or we can dig in a bit further.
Click on the “hamburger” menu on the top right (three horizontal lines) you’ll get a menu full of options:
They all look interesting, but none of them are what you seek! See the little “?” on the bottom? Click on that and yet another menu pops up:
You’re getting closer! Choose “About Firefox” and theoretically if there’s an update, it should flag it:
I say “theoretically” because as you can see, it has failed to identify that there are quite a few new versions available on the journey from 54.0 to 57.0.4. And yet, it’s not aware that there’s an update.
After a while you might see this pop up on your browser:
Rather than wait for that, however, there’s another way to see if there’s something new: go to getfirefox.com and see if this appears at the top of the screen:
Go to that page by clicking on “Update”, then if you’re still not seeing an update pop up, look for the emergency “download from here” link near the bottom. When you do, you’ll see the version number in the download package:
There it is, version 57.0.4 as desired. Click “OK” to open it and replace the current version of Firefox with this, the latest version. So for all this exploration of Firefox, in fact the easiest answer is probably “Just go to getfirefox.com and see if it says you need to update”. Oh well. At least you now know.
As I write this firefox 58 (64 bit) is downloading an update.
I restart by browser every day and sometimes multiple times a day. Otherwise Firefox just grows and grows in size ultimately slowing down everything. The computer gets restarted at least once per week assuming there is no windows update that requires a restart. Again, various programs get sluggish and restarting the computer perks them up.
There are also privacy issues to leaving the browser running if the computer itself is not secure.
I have version 58.0 and am beginning to wonder why. It has a very cute little cartoon character telling me that it can’t find websites. It gets irritating since for a time it can’t find any websites. Then it finds a login for my email only to lose connection almost at once. I have repaired windows and run virus scans but it makes little difference. I even changed my search engine!
Frankly since Quantum it has become very flaky and very irritating. I would prefer slower and steadier running. I am considering ditching Firefox aqnd going to Chrome
I have just checked and I’m running version 58. something and all done automatically.
Excellent. Good to know how to push an update anyway though!
I downloaded the latest version of Firefox and I can/t use it any more. This is what I get every time I try to open anything… Your connection is not secure
The owner of http://www.askdavetaylor.com has configured their website improperly. To protect your information from being stolen, Firefox has not connected to this website.
What do I do?
Thomas, sounds like you might have something wrong with your clock on your computer. Check to ensure that it’s the correct date and year. If that’s wrong, then you might need to scan for viruses…
I recently had the same problem. What you do is clear your history, and open Firefox in safe mode (with add-ons disabled). Basically, you set Firefox back to the beginning and reconstruct your add-ons. Painful, but worth it…
Can’t you just install Secunia PSI and you will be reminded about vulnerable software?