The release of the Pale Moon web browser 33.7.0 has been published, a fork of the Firefox codebase aimed at providing higher efficiency, maintaining the classic interface, minimizing memory consumption, and offering additional customization options. Pale Moon builds are available for Windows and Linux (x86_64). The project's code is distributed under the MPLv2 (Mozilla Public License).
The project adheres to a classic interface organization, without transitioning to the integrated Australis and Photon interfaces in Firefox 29 and 57, and provides extensive customization capabilities. Removed components include DRM, Social API, WebRTC, PDF viewer, Crash Reporter, code for collecting statistics, parental control tools, and accessibility features. Compared to Firefox, the browser reintroduces support for extensions using XUL and maintains the ability to apply both full and lightweight themes.
Key Changes:
- Compiler requirements have been increased; at least GCC 9.1 is now required for building.
- Improved support for CSP (Content Security Policy) and CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) mechanisms.
- Support for the syntax 'color x% y%' in CSS has been added, equivalent to 'color x%, color y%'.
- Updated libraries: ffvpx 6.0.1, SQLite 3.49.1, and JPEG-XL 0.11.1.
- Improved compatibility with the DOMRect and DOMQuad APIs.
- Improved support for NTLM authentication.
- Additional checks have been added to enhance security when working with SharedArrayBuffers and XSLT.
- For the Windows platform, a new setting 'widget.windows.follow_shortcuts_on_file_open' has been implemented to enable/disable shortcut handling in file open dialogs.
Rarely used browsers still face issues with CAPTCHA verification when accessing sites using CloudFlare. When launched in Pale Moon, the CloudFlare verification script hangs. The creator of Pale Moon claims that the problem lies with CloudFlare, which is delaying a fix and requires developers to sign a non-disclosure agreement to begin discussions. In addition to Pale Moon, the CAPTCHA hang issue also appears in Basilisk, Waterfox, Falkon, SeaMonkey, Thorium, Ungoogled Chromium, K-Meleon, LibreWolf, MyPal 68, Otter, and some browsers based on the Firefox engine. The noted browsers are built on different engines, including current ones, so it is likely the problem arises from bot protection triggers when analyzing behaviors atypical of the most popular browsers.
Additionally, a corrective update for Firefox 137.0.1 has been noted, which fixes three bugs:
- An issue with shortcuts in the Windows builds where shortcuts to directories were treated as files, preventing file selection before submission.
- Crash when uploading files on Windows systems with the Qihoo 360 antivirus.
- Crash during launch on some systems due to missing NULL return value checks in the GetOriginalReferrer() method in the CSS loader.
Source: opennet.ru
