"The Mozilla Foundation released on Monday a beta version of the group's latest open-source Firefox browser, rewriting parts of the code and enhancing security.

Firefox 3 Beta 1 adds anti-malware features to the browser, using a similar mechanism as the anti-phishing feature in Firefox 2, harnessing a Google-generated blacklist of sites that are hosting malicious code. The beta version of the browser also checks plugins to make sure they are compatible with the software and uses a secure download mechanism for updates.

"There is a lot of code that has changed, but I don't think there is a lot more code," Mike Schroepfer, vice president of engineering for the group, told SecurityFocus. "We have actually excised old code, and there are couple of areas were we dug out the component and rewrote the whole thing.""

Article Link: http://www.securityfocus.com/brief/631