Firefox update pulled over security fear

Mozilla advises Firefox 16 users to go back to previous version

The most recent update for Mozilla's Firefox web browser has been taken offline one day after release because of a newly discovered security vulnerability.

Mozilla has not indicated how many users could be vulnerable, but claims that there have been no reports from users experiencing problems.

Nonetheless, the company advises those who have already upgraded to Firefox 16 to reinstall the previous version of the web browser while it works to come up with a fix.

"The vulnerability could allow a malicious site to potentially determine which websites users have visited and have access to the URL or URL parameters. At this time we have no indication that this vulnerability is currently being exploited in the wild," said a blog post by Michael Coates, Mozilla's director of security assurance.

Firefox 16 isn't a mandatory update for the browser and has now been temporarily removed from the current installer page. However, users will be upgraded to the new version as soon as it becomes available once more.

Mozilla Firefox has 450 million users worldwide, the company says.

Last month saw a security exploit discovered within Microsoft's Internet Explorer, while earlier this year Google was forced to fix several high risk security flaws in its Chrome browser. The three rival internet browsers are the most used in the world.