Mozilla patches Firefox side of Safari 'carpet bomb' threat

Mozilla Corp. has patched a pair of critical vulnerabilities in Firefox, taking the unusual step of updating the older Version 2.0 on Tuesday but delaying the fixes for the newer Version 3.0 until Wednesday.

Both updates, labeled Firefox 2.0.0.16 and Firefox 3.0.1, plug two holes rated "critical" by Mozilla, which uses a four-step threat ranking system. Firefox 2.0.0.16 was posted to Mozilla's servers Tuesday afternoon.

Firefox 3.0.1, the first update since the open-source browser was upgraded almost a month ago, won't reach users until Wednesday at the earliest, according to notes from a Mozilla status meeting published online.

One of the flaws patched in 2.0.0.16 and 3.0.1 was credited to security researcher Billy Rios, who wrote last month about a "blended" threat to Windows users who had both Apple Inc.'s Safari browser and Firefox installed on the same system. Then, Rios said that Safari's "carpet bomb" bug -- first disclosed in May and patched in June by Apple -- could be combined with other vulnerabilities to attack not only systems with Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer, but also those equipped with Firefox.