The security vulnerability that was discovered two days ago was fixed in the Firefox web browser yesterday with an emergency out of band update. The same vulnerability affects the Thunderbird email client as well, which is why the developer’s have rushed an update for the email software.
The update is already available for download. Users who already work with a version of Thunderbird can check for new updates by clicking on Help > Check for Updates in the email client’s interface. The new version is also available for download at the official Mozilla Messaging site, good for users who cannot update the client directly.
How is Thunderbird affected by the vulnerability anyway? If you remember, the email client has browser-like capabilities, and that’s where it becomes vulnerable. The user needs to open a website in Thunderbird that exploits the vulnerability. If the email client has not been upgraded the system could be compromised, and an attacker could get remote access to the local system.
Thunderbird users who do not use the browser-like features are safe, but should update anyway to eliminate the possibility of a successful attack.
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There must certainly be an excellent answer/reason to the following question, which of course I ignore :
Why not have a combined browser and email client, like Opera ? Is the obvious reason 1+1 < 1+(1+1) (combined+independent) the only one ?
…
Anyway, nice to have both, back on stage!