Updates 9/5/23 - Pale Moon

PaleMoon v32.4.0 (2023-09-05)

This is a major development update, further improving web compatibility and fixing bugs.

Changes/fixes:

• Implemented the BigInt primitive type for JavaScript. See implementation notes.
• Implemented Big(U)Int64 array support.
• Implemented ergonomic brand checks for JavaScript class fields.
• Aligned the Performance API with the Timeline v2 spec.
• Aligned the handling of flex/grid percentages resolving against the parent with other browsers. See implementation notes.
• Added or updated several user-agent overrides for problematic websites.
• Added 2 preferences to allow users to disable CSS animations and transitions. See implementation notes.
• Improved compatibility with MacOS 14.
• Fixed an important, intermittent JavaScript crash related to garbage collection.
• Fixed several crashes.
• Fixed several debug build related issues.
• Fixed an issue building on SunOS related to the spelling library.
• Developer: Added ASan support for building with MSVC.
• Added the .xll file extension to the executable extensions list.
• Security issues addressed: several potential security issues that do not have a CVE number. DiD
• UXP Mozilla security patch summary: 1 fixed, 3 DiD, 17 not applicable.

Implementation notes:

• The BigInt primitive (base number format) in JavaScript allows JavaScript to handle excessively large integers (whole numbers). This primitive is especially useful for specialized scientific applications that need very large yet accurate numbers, but has seen widespread adoption for an as of yet unknown reason as part of web frameworks, causing general web compatibility issues for Pale Moon when scripts expect BigInt support and instead have an error thrown. We have now implemented this primitive for use so we no longer have compatibility issues with these frameworks. It is still unknown why BigInt is in use there and for what. Critical note: BigInt might be tempting to consider for JS-backed cryptography but this is very ill-advised, as BigInt operations are, by their nature, not constant-time and allow timing and side-channel attacks.
• Flex and grid item sizes in percentages would previously be resolved against the parent like other elements, according to a very long-standing practice that stems from the Internet Explorer days. Mainstream browsers have, however, made an exception for flex items and grid items to no longer do this. We have now made the same exception for these types of elements which should solve layout issues on some websites (notably reserving too much space for items, often resulting in very large areas of whitespace or items being pushed out of view).
• Two preferences were added (layout.css.animation.enabled and layout.css.transition.enabled) to allow users to completely disable CSS-based animations and transition effects. This was a request by users as both a performance and accessibility consideration. Please note that in some cases, disabling animations and transitions may have an impact on final web page layout, so you may run into some issues when disabling these animations and transitions as the web pages were designed to use them.

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Available via the internal updater:   Help / Check for Updates

or Full downloads:   Pale Moon for Windows downloads