Firefox 119 is here with extension import from Chrome

The Firefox 119 web browser has been released, bringing with it several user interface changes and new features. Along with it, users also receive an update to the long-term support branch 115.4.0. Additionally, Firefox 120 has entered beta, with a release date scheduled for November 21st.

What's new in Firefox 119

• The Firefox View page has got an UI update.  The Firefox View page brings together information about active tabs, recently viewed pages, closed tabs, and tabs from other devices in one place.
• The ability to import add-ons from Chrome and browsers based on the Chromium engine. the dialog for importing data from other browsers ("Import Data" on the about:preferences#general page), an option has been added to transfer add-ons.
• Support for the ECH (Encrypted Client Hello) mechanism. ECH encrypts the entire TLS ClientHello message, which allows you to block leaks of TLS session parameters.
• The built-in PDF viewer's document editing capabilities now supports inserting images and text annotations, in addition to the previously available freehand line drawing and attaching text comments. The new PDF editing mode is activated only for some users.
• Firefox now saves recently closed tabs, so you can re-open them after you restart the browser.
• The Total Cookie Protection mode have been expanded, including isolation of the "blob:...." URI scheme.
• For users of the enhanced tracking protection mechanism (ETP, Enhanced Tracking Protection), additional protection is enabled against indirect identification of users through font analysis.  Fonts visible to sites are limited to system fonts and fonts from standard language sets.
• The Storage Access API has been updated to prompt the user for permission to access Cookie storage from an iframe. It appears if third-party Cookies are blocked by default. The new implementation has enhanced protection and helps avoiding problems with certain sites.
• On the Windows platform, added support for a system setting that hides the cursor while typing.
• In the version for the Android platform, added support for prefers-contrast and prefers-reduced-transparency media queries in the Android 14 environment.
• On Ubuntu, improved performance when Firefox is delivered in Snap format packages. The Firefox snap package provides support for using the native Ubuntu file selection dialog when accessing data from other browsers, as well as support for determining available features based on the installed version of xdg-desktop-portal.

In addition to new features and bug fixes, Firefox 119 has fixed 25 vulnerabilities . The 17 vulnerabilities (16 combined under CVE-2023-5730 and CVE-2023-5731) that are marked as dangerous are caused by memory problems, such as buffer overflows and access to already freed memory areas. Potentially, these problems can lead to the execution of an attacker's code when opening specially designed pages. Another dangerous vulnerability (CVE-2023-5721) allows clickjacking to confirm or cancel some browser dialogs or warnings.

Download Firefox 119

You can update to the latest version of Firefox by going to the About Firefox section of the browser's menu.

Linux users should use the OS' package manager to get the latest version available for the distro. E.g. in Ubuntu/Mint with the official mozillateam PPA connected, you can run the apt update && apt install firefox command in a root terminal.

Alternatively, you can download the installers here: https://releases.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/119.0/.  There, pick the browser that matches your operating system, language and platform. Files in there are organized into subfolders by a platform, UI language, and include full (offline) installers. The official release notes are here: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/119.0/releasenotes/.

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