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What exactly are these "security risks" which updating Firefox is supposed to fix? Any examples?

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  • Last reply by philipp

Valentin9265
Valentin9265
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I always hear about "security risks" and that I have to update Firefox to fix them. So what exactly are these security risks? What can I expect to happen if I don't update Firefox? If you can link to detailed descriptions about these risks, that's acceptable too.

I always hear about "security risks" and that I have to update Firefox to fix them. So what exactly are these security risks? What can I expect to happen if I don't update Firefox? If you can link to detailed descriptions about these risks, that's acceptable too.

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philipp
philipp
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hi valentin, fixed security issues in firefox and the impact they may have get published on https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/security/known-vulnerabilities/firefox/

Valentin9265
Valentin9265 Question owner
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But what do these descriptions imply? How likely is the average user to encounter these attacks? Aren't you safe as long as you stick to opening trusted and safe links?

Modified by Valentin9265

philipp
philipp
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only sticking to "well-known" sites may lessen the likelihood of getting infected but it is no guarantee by far. as many sites include third party-content (due to advertising, or other purposes), it would be enough if one actor is getting compromised to do the damage and we have already seen exploits spreading this way many times: https://blog.malwarebytes.org/malvertising-2/2015/04/booby-trapped-hugo-boss-advert-spreads-cryptowall-ransomware/

there are also "exploit kits" out there which regularly update and "bundle" known vulnerabilities to increase the chance that visitors to a compromised site get infected.

short summary: please keep your browser fully patched (no matter which one you're using)!