Close
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Menu
eWEEK.com
Search
eWEEK.com
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Applications
    • Applications
    • Cybersecurity
    • Development

    Firefox 62 Improves CSS Support for Developers, Fixes Bugs

    By
    SEAN MICHAEL KERNER
    -
    September 6, 2018
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin
      Firefox 62

      Mozilla released Firefox 62.0 on Sept. 5, providing users of the open-source web browser on Linux, macOS, Windows, Android and iOS with new features and security updates.

      Among the new features in the desktop version of Firefox is an update to the new tab display page, known as Firefox Home. Since 2012 and the Firefox 13 release, Mozilla has been updating and adjusting its approach to what it shows in the new tab page. With Firefox 62, users can now see up to four rows of site listings, which include top sites visited by the user, recommendations from Pocket and Highlights.

      On Windows, Mozilla has improved Firefox performance for graphics rendering for users who don’t have accelerated hardware. Firefox 62 on Windows makes use of a technique known as “Parallel-Off-The-Main-Painting,” which renders graphics in a more optimized manner than prior efforts.

      Although challenged by other web browsers, including Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, Firefox continues to maintain a large user base. According to the latest set of statistics published by Mozilla, Firefox has a user base of approximately 860 million worldwide.

      One of the areas the Mozilla has long advanced with Firefox is support for emerging web standards for developers. In Firefox 62, support has been added for the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Shapes specification, which enables developers to describe and use geometric shapes for use in web layouts. Additionally, Firefox 62 includes a Shape Path Editor as part of the CSS Inspector, which is included in the Web Developer tools that are integrated with the browser.

      Another new web specification that is supported in Firefox 62 is the CSS Variable Fonts specification.

      “Variable fonts are an evolution of the OpenType font specification that enables many different variations of a typeface to be incorporated into a single file, rather than having a separate font file for every width, weight, or style,” Mozilla explains in its developer documentation. “They let you access all the variations contained in a given font file via CSS and a single @font-face reference.”

      Security Patches

      Firefox 62 provides patches for nine security issues, of which only one is rated as being critical and three bugs rated with high severity. The critical issue is identified by Mozilla as CVE-2018-12376 and fixes issues with memory safety in Firefox.

      “Some of these bugs showed evidence of memory corruption and we presume that with enough effort that some of these could be exploited to run arbitrary code,” Mozilla warned in its advisory.

      Also of note is the CVE-2018-12383 vulnerability that deals with how Firefox saves user passwords that had been present since Firefox 58.

      “If a user saved passwords before Firefox 58 and then later set a master password, an unencrypted copy of these passwords is still accessible,” Mozilla warned in its advisory. “This is because the older stored password file was not deleted when the data was copied to a new format starting in Firefox 58.”

      Firefox 63

      With Firefox 62 now generally available, Firefox 63 has entered its beta phase. Security will be a core focus of Firefox 63, with the upcoming browser set to block slow loading web trackers by default.

      “Long page load times are detrimental to every user’s experience on the web,” Nick Nguyen, vice president of Firefox at Mozilla, wrote in a blog post. “If we find that our approach performs well, we will start blocking slow-loading trackers by default in Firefox 63.”

      Firefox 63.0 is expected to be officially released on Oct. 23.

      Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at eWEEK and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Android

      Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

      CHRIS PREIMESBERGER - December 5, 2020 0
      Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Why Data Security Will Face Even Harsher...

      CHRIS PREIMESBERGER - December 1, 2020 0
      Who would know more about details of the hacking process than an actual former career hacker? And who wants to understand all they can...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      How Veritas Is Shining a Light Into...

      EWEEK EDITORS - September 25, 2020 0
      Protecting data has always been one of the most important tasks in all of IT, yet as more companies become data companies at the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      How NVIDIA A100 Station Brings Data Center...

      ZEUS KERRAVALA - November 18, 2020 0
      There’s little debate that graphics processor unit manufacturer NVIDIA is the de facto standard when it comes to providing silicon to power machine learning...
      Read more
      Apple

      Why iPhone 12 Pro Makes Sense for...

      WAYNE RASH - November 26, 2020 0
      If you’ve been watching the Apple commercials for the past three weeks, you already know what the company thinks will happen if you buy...
      Read more
      eWeek


      Contact Us | About | Sitemap

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      Terms of Service | Privacy Notice | Advertise | California - Do Not Sell My Info

      © 2020 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×