Mozilla Plugin Check page to help safer web experience

To provide users a safer web experience, Mozilla is now going after plugins, which due to the lack of an effective update mechanism, are usually a few versions behind in most user’s computers, leaving them unnecessarily exposed to already patched security flaws.

With the latest Firefox 3.5.3 update, Mozilla introduced a simple check to its first run page that looks for new versions of the Flash plugin if it is currently installed. If it isn’t up to date, a link is provided to get the new version.

As planned, Mozilla is now extending this Flash check to other well known plugins to ensure users are running the latest versions and minimize the risk of exposure to known and fixed security vulnerabilities, and other bugs that may impact a user experience.

It is currently in beta status, but you can try it right now. Disregard the invalid certificate warning, and let the page check for your plugins to get a quick diagnostic.

Note that some plugins don’t declare their version number properly so Firefox will always show these as Potentially Vulnerable. This was the case for Adobe’s Reader plugin. I updated to the latest version using Reader’s own update mechanism, but still got the warning.

According to Mozilla, you may have similar experiences with Windows Media Player plugin and the Real Player plugin.

You can leave your comments at Mozilla Web Development blog.