The new version of the Firefox 74 web browser has been released, as well as the mobile version of Firefox 68.6 for the Android platform, in addition to an update of the current long-support version “68.6.0” has been generated.
This new version of the browser comes with some quite interesting news, of which we can mention the inclusion of the new RLBox isolation mechanism (Linux only), as well as the inclusion of Multi Account Containers, TLS 1.0 and 1.1 disabled among many other things.
What's new in Firefox 74?
One of the main changes that stand out in this new version of the browser that benefits Linux users is the iInclusion of the RLBox isolation mechanism, intended to block the exploitation of vulnerabilities in third-party function libraries.
At this stage, isolation is enabled only for the Graphite library, which is responsible for rendering fonts.
Another change is the disabled support for TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 protocols, which were previously used to access the sites through a "secure communication" channel, but due to the fact that these protocols were already considered obsolete for several months, TLS 1.2 support is now used.
Also, in the release note, some are mentioned changes to Facebook Container plugin as Multi-Account Containers plugin is now proposed with the implementation of the concept of context containers.
Containers provide the ability to isolate multiple types of content without creating separate profiles, allowing you to separate information from individual groups of pages.
On the other hand, DNS over HTTPS is enabled by default for US users. The default DNS provider is CloudFlare (mozilla.cloudflare-dns.com appears on Roskomnadzor's block lists) and NextDNS is available as an option.
En lockwise, (the browser-based system plug-in that offers the "about: logins" interface for managing stored passwords) now supports sorting in reverse order (Z to A).
WebRTC has increased protection against information loss internal IP address during voice and video calls using the "mDNS ICE" mechanism, which hides the local address behind a dynamically generated random identifier identified via multicast DNS.
Regarding changes directed at Windows and macOS, the ability to import profiles from Microsoft Edge browser based on the Chromium engine.
In addition to innovations and bug fixes, Firefox 74 fixed 20 vulnerabilities, of which 10 (compiled under CVE-2020-6814 and CVE-2020-6815) were marked as potentially capable of leading to the execution of malicious code when opening specially crafted pages.
How to install or update the new version of Firefox 74 on Linux?
It is important to mention that most Linux distributions have the Firefox package in their repositories, so the availability of this new version may take a few days.
However, it is possible to obtain this new version in a faster way. Such is the case for Ubuntu, Linux Mint or some other Ubuntu derivative users, They can install or update to this new version with the help of the browser's PPA.
This can be added to the system by opening a terminal and executing the following command in it:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-security/ppa -y sudo apt-get update
Done this now they just have to install with:
sudo apt install firefox
In the case of Arch Linux users and derivatives, just run in a terminal:
sudo pacman -Syu
Or to install with:
sudo pacman -S firefox
Finally for those who prefer to use Snap packages, they will be able to install the new version as soon as it is released in the Snap repositories.
But they can get the package directly from Mozilla's FTP. With the help of a terminal by typing the following command:
wget https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/74.0/snap/firefox-74.0.snap
And to install the package we just type:
sudo snap install firefox-74.0.snap
For all other Linux distributions can download the binary packages from the following link.
In the near future, the Firefox 75 branch will launch into the beta testing stage, which is scheduled to launch on April 7, in addition to the formation of Linux builds in the Flatpak format for the beta branch of Firefox 75. has started.