1

I received notice from my IT department to update Firefox and Thunderbird due to security issues. I thought it would be as easy as going clicking something like "Search for updates" in the menu, but I couldn't find such an option. I ran sudo apt update and then sudo apt upgrade because I think that is how all installed software is usually updated.

However, these are the version numbers of my Firefox and Thunderbird installations as listed in the settings:

firefox version

thunderbird version

Though if I download Firefox directly here, I get version 88 at the time of writing this. Thunderbird's newest version is 78.10. Thanks to the question linked in the comments, I understand that for various reasons, the Ubuntu upgrade command does not necessarily install the newest stable versions of any software. Is there another route?

smcs
  • 1,032

1 Answers1

1

As already commented, the versions of both Firefox and Thunderbird are up-to-date in any standard and fully updated Ubuntu 20.04 installation. Such request from your IT department seems overzealous and misinformed regarding the security issues in the real world.

There are many reason why LTS releases don't have the latest versions of the included software but web browsers are the exception and are always kept up-to-date with minimal delay.

The above notwithstanding there are ways of running newer versions of both in Ubuntu 20.04.

FIREFOX:

Ad the PPA for "Firefox-Next".

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-next
sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade

This will update Firefox to the version being tested. At the time of this writing it'll update Firefox to version 89.xx.

THUNDERBIRD:

Unfortunately the same method can't be used for Thunderbird because the equivalent PPA is only for older releases and hasn't seen an update since 2018. However, newer Thunderbird versions do exist in additional Ubuntu repositories (-proposed shouldn't usually be enabled). There are reasons for holding back some newer Thunderbird versions, discussed in this Q&A.

An alternative to both Firefox and Thunderbird is to use the Mozilla Security PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-security/ppa
sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade
ChanganAuto
  • 1,670
  • 8
  • 14
  • 21
  • 1
    Thank you, this seems like the next best option so far! I do wonder why in this specific case you think that the IT are overzealous. A US security agency notes: An attacker can exploit some of these vulnerabilities to take control of an affected system. That seems like a serious issue. – smcs Apr 21 '21 at 14:18
  • It's always a "serious" issue ;) and the "an attacker can..." is often the reason given. The problem is all of this, the ones mentioned in the articles you linked, are theoretical and the chances that someone actually takes advantage of those are so remote that is ridiculous to even think about them, particularly in the context of a corporate networks where protections surely are in place way before the "attacker" can reach any individual's machine, let alone exploit it. – ChanganAuto Apr 21 '21 at 14:25
  • Thank you. I found that there is a Mozilla Security ppa. Wouldn't this be the more appropriate choice? Instead of a beta version, it includes Firefox 88 which is the current stable version, and also Thunderbird 1.78.10. However the description is: Unless you are testing updates, you should NOT install packages from this PPA. There is no reason given for this though. – smcs Apr 22 '21 at 09:47
  • 1
    Thanks, didn't knew about that one. Yes, I think it's an even better choice and covers both so I added it to the answer. All PPAs are "at your own risk" ;) – ChanganAuto Apr 22 '21 at 09:58