Firefox 153 launches with new security improvements and fixes

Mozilla released Firefox 153.0 to the public yesterday. The new version of the open source browser comes with a good range of new features and changes, including some that are important for privacy and security.

The list of changes is long, but there are several standout features in changes. For one, Mozilla integrated the decade-old Containers feature of the browser directly into Firefox as an out-of-the-box feature.

Containers allow you to separate websites and data. The main idea is to contain data within containers, which means that anything that runs outside can’t access the container data. Whether it is a coincidence that Mozilla is making the feature more visible after Brave introduced it recently is unclear, but it could give Containers a much needed boost.

There are various methods to open sites in Containers. You can right-click on any open tab and select the “Open in new Container tab” option, or right-click on the new-tab-button instead.

Firefox ships with the usual four default containers personal, work, banking, and shopping, which you can edit. You can also add new containers or enable “Select a container for each new tab” to automatically open the container picker when opening a new tab.

The Multi-Account Container add-on is still useful, as it extends the functionality. You can use it to force-launch specific sites in a container and use other exclusive features.

As far as security and privacy are concerned, there are three additional changes that are noteworthy:

• Extensions do not gain access to local files by default anymore. You can still grant them permission using the new “Access local files on your computer” permission.
• Firefox now requires websites to request permission before connecting to devices on local networks, or to apps and services on a device.
• Veteran Firefox users may remember the cookieBehavior preference. The values 3 (Allows third-party cookies only if the eTLD+1 already has at least one cookie set in a first-party context) and 4 (Blocks cookies from domains classified as trackers.) are being removed. They are hidden in Firefox 153 and may be removed as early as Firefox 155. Mozilla replaces them with what it says modern values. Link

Here are the remaining important changes and new features in Firefox 153:

• HDR video playback is coming to Windows on devices that support it. Make sure that HDR video streaming is enabled under Settings > Display.
• Share > Generate QR Code is a new option to share pages.
• PDF Editor can now merge multiple PDFs by dragging them into the PDF sidebar and add new pages to PDFs.
• Type “pick color” in the address bar to quickly copy a color code from the active page.
• On Apple devices, Firefox supports Globe-F now.
• Local permissions are not highlighted in red in the address bar.
• You can launch Firefox labs now by typing labs in the address bar.

Last but not least, Mozilla patched several security issues in Firefox. The aggregate rating is high and there is no mention of exploits in the wild.