Mozilla issues critical Firefox and Thunderbird patches

Mozilla has released updates for its web browser and email client, fixing a number of security problems and offering claimed stability improvements.

Firefox has been issued with two patches for the current 3.6.x and legacy 3.5.x tracks. Both updates fix a number of issues described as 'critical'.

The Thunderbird mail client also received two updates for the 3.1.x and 3.0.x tracks. The 3.1.1 update covers five specific fixes, while the legacy 3.0.6 patch deals with a number of 'critical' security issues.

Mozilla recently offered a US$3,000 bounty for each bug discovered in its applications. The hope is that dangling such a big carrot will encourage developers to produce higher quality code and promote the private reporting of bugs.

The latest updates will be pushed through Mozilla's scheduled auto-update software, and users will be prompted to update in the coming days.

However, the company recommends that users force a check for updates or download the latest versions now owing to the critical nature of the vulnerabilities.