Mozilla pushes trial of new security tools

Mozilla is asking researchers and developers to help test out a new security tool for its Firefox web browser.

The company has posted a preview build for a new tool known as Content Security Policy (CSP), and is hoping that both webmasters and security experts alike will try out the tool.

The CSP component is designed to help prevent pages from being infected with third-party attacks, such as cross-site-scripting. The tool allows webmasters and site developers to place restrictions on how external sites can access and interact with the page.

Mozilla security program manager Brandon Sterne said that after several months of development and testing behind closed doors, the company is now bundling the tool with preview versions of Firefox in hopes that researchers would put CSP to the test against possible real-world attack scenarios.

"We're thrilled to have received so much great feedback from other browser vendors, website administrators and security researchers, and we’re very proud of the design that has come out of that discussion," Sterne explained in a blog posting.

"We would like to encourage any server administrators or web app security researchers who are interested in this project to grab a preview Firefox build and help us test the new features."

End users should not, however, expect CSP to be a polished and complete component too soon. Sternes noted that the tool was still in a trial phase, and that certain features and protections were not fully implemented yet.