Mozilla warns: stop using Firefox 16

Only two days after announcing Firefox 16, Mozilla removed the browser in response to a security vulnerability affecting all early installations.

Mozilla warns that the flaw allows a malicious website to "potentially" determine where Firefox 16 users have been and to gain access to the URL or URL parameters. The open-source group says it had no knowledge of the exploit and as a safety measure recommends that anyone who installed Firefox 16 should "downgrade" to Firefox 15.0.1 and wait for the browser to be upgraded to the new, fixed, version.

As an alternative from reverting to Firefox 15.0.1 Mozilla also mentions using the latest version until the security vulnerability is automatically patched, although it's the less-safe approach.

The fix is planned to ship today.