Firefox 121 and Thunderbird 115.6 available
The new versions of Firefox and Thunderbird seal security leaks and bring new functions.
David FischerThe developers at Mozilla have released the web browser Firefox in version 121 as well as Firefox ESR and Thunderbird in versions 115.6. The most important changes concern security - the programmers have fixed numerous vulnerabilities. But new functions have also made it into the software.
In Firefox 121, the developers have sealed a total of 18 security vulnerabilities, five of which are considered high risk, eight as medium and five as low risk. The long-term support version Firefox ESR 115.6 now contains eleven fewer security-relevant errors, four of which were high risk, six were medium risk and one was low risk. In Thunderbird 115.6, programmers patched eleven vulnerabilities - three with high threat levels, seven with medium risk and one considered low risk.
In the release notes for Firefox 121, the developers highlight some innovations. For hardware-accelerated video decoding of AV1 streams, Firefox on Windows now encourages users to install the AV1 video extension from the Microsoft Store if it is not already on the system. Firefox now also supports voice control commands on macOS. On Linux, Firefox now defaults to the Wayland compositor instead of XWayland, if it is available.
This allows support for touchpad and touchscreen gestures, swipe-to-nav, DPI settings per monitor, improved graphics performance and the like. However, there are also hiccups. Picture-in-picture windows require user interaction such as a right-click in the window or tweaks to the shell or desktop environment. In Firefox's Surfing settings there is now the new option Always underline links, which does exactly that: links on websites are then always displayed underlined, which makes it easier for users to recognize links.
The release notes for Thunderbird are less extensive, but mention minor bug fixes. The message selection got stuck when a message was selected from an expanded thread, the thread was collapsed and the selection was then moved using the up or down keys. If SMTP 4xx errors have occurred, Thunderbird will try to contact the server via a new connection. Additionally, HTML attachments could use incorrect encoding.
About Author
David Fischer
I am a technology writer for UpdateStar, covering software, security, and privacy as well as research and innovation in information security. I worked as an editor for German computer magazines for more than a decade before starting to be a team member at UpdateStar.