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What’s in the latest Firefox update? 93 improves SmartBlock, debuts sponsored search suggestions

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Mozilla this week updated Firefox to version 93, which now blocks downloads over insecure connections, improves the browser’s anti-tracking prowess and introduces Firefox Suggest, the newest way the company will try to earn revenue.

The organization’s security engineers also patched seven vulnerabilities, four marked “High,” Firefox’s second-most-serious label. The majority of those vulnerabilities were in the “memory safety bugs” bucket, a category that covers a wide swath of memory corruption and memory leak flaws.

Firefox 93 can be downloaded for Windows, macOS, and Linux from Mozilla’s site. Because Firefox updates in the background, most users need only launch (or relaunch) the browser to install the latest version. To manually update on Windows, pull up the menu under the three horizontal bars at the upper right, then click the help icon (the question mark within a circle). Choose “About Firefox.” (On macOS, “About Firefox” can be found under the “Firefox” menu.) The resulting page or pop-up shows that the browser is already up to date or displays the upgrade process.

Mozilla last upgraded Firefox four weeks ago, on Sept. 7.

Iffy downloads blocked

Starting with Firefox 93, the browser will block, at least temporarily, any download attempts over an insecure connection — one using the now-outdated HTTP protocol — even if those downloads are requested from a page secured with HTTPS. (Downloads are often transmitted from different servers or Internet locations than the page where they’re listed.)

When Firefox recognizes an insecure download starting, it will pause the data transmission and put a message on the screen to alert the user, who can continue the download or delete the file, partial though it might be.