How in the Tech

Ensuring your browser plugins are up to date with Mozilla Plug-In Check

By Adam Myers ⋅ October 5, 2009 ⋅ Tags: Firefox, Security

Mozilla, the group of developers behind the hugely popular Internet Explorer alternative browser Firefox, have taken on the responsibility of ensuring it’s users are fully patched and not exploitable by any of the known vulnerabilities in many of today’s most popular browser plugins. Initially, Mozilla was informing users of out-dated Flash plugins by notifying users on the What’s New webpage that is displayed after every successful Firefox upgrade. The page would simply identify the currently installed version of Flash and provide a direct link to Adobe’s website for the latest version. This is an excellent initiative for Mozilla to undertake as anything that results in a more secure browsing platform for an individual, the better.

The feedback was so positive that Mozilla has begun to extend the functionality to detect potentially vulnerable plugins outside of just Adobe Flash, currently found on the Mozilla Plug-In Check website. Visiting the site from within Firefox will cross-check the version of plugins from Quicktime, Flash, Shockwave, Acrobat, Media Player (and more) with those available from the respective vendor. The logic is, the latest currently available version should be the most secure. If your versions don’t match you are provided a link to grab the latest release. A lot of us like to think we are security conscious, I know I’d like to believe that. But I can almost guarantee that unless you’ve just reinstalled your operating system, you will fail the Plug-In Check test. See for yourself and let me know?

One word of caution, when you visit the Plug In Check link Firefox will warn you of an invalid certificate – in this case only, it is sufficient to ignore the warning and continue on. To be clear, this is not a blanket statement for every site that may generate the warning!