Secunia, a major software vulnerability tracking firm, just announced a new vulnerability found in Firefox that allows a webpage to read information stored in the user's memory without restraint. This is one of the most serious vulnerabilities that has been found in Firefox to date, and it has been rated moderately critical (note that Internet Explorer has had several extremely critical vulnerabilities). The good news is that within just hours, the vulnerability was fixed and Firefox version 1.0.3, which contains some other fixes as well, will be on its way shortly. Unlike Microsoft, who often releases partial fixes or simply gives workarounds to avoid the issues, the Firefox developers have consistently provided complete fixes for its discovered vulnerabilities, and in a tiny fraction of the time that it takes for Microsoft to roll out a patch. As with any complex piece of software that deals so much with outside information and provides scripting mechanisms, more and more vulnerabilities will certainly be found in Firefox as time goes on. However, we can already see the difference. The Firefox vulnerabilities have all been relatively minor in comparison with what we frequently see in Internet Explorer. Furthermore, major vulnerabilities in Firefox are fixed in the blink of an eye. In every case, the vulnerability has been fixed before I even knew that one existed (and I subscribe to news about this stuff!)