Mozilla Fixes Password Management Gaffe

Just after Mozilla released Firefox version 3.0.02, which fixed a bevy of security problems, the foundation had to issue a notice to users about a flaw that could keep users from accessing and even creating passwords under some conditions.In Stefanie Hoffman's CRN news story, which ran late last week:

The most recent Firefox glitch prevents access to passwords with international characters in the Web address, the login, or the password itself. Another update is anticipated.

"There is no permanent data loss, the saved data is just inaccessible," said Firefox lead Mike Beltzner in a posting on the Mozilla site. "While this doesn't affect all Firefox users, it is a significant regression and has triggered a fast-release Firefox 3.0.3 which will contain a single fix for this issue."

Fast update, indeed. While Mozilla promised the update would be available sometime next week, it was actually made available over this weekend.

Firefox users can download version 3.0.3 from the Mozilla site.