The Tor Project has announced the release of Tor Browser 15.0, a new stable version and the first to be based on Firefox ESR 140. This release is huge because it includes a year’s worth of upstream Firefox changes that have been audited for privacy and security.
Some of the key new features and changes on the desktop include vertical tabs and tab groups, inherited from Firefox. The Tor Browser also gets the new unified search button to easily switch search engines, search bookmarks, or tabs.
On the Android version of Tor Browser, there is a new optional screen lock feature to secure open tabs if you switch away from the browser without closing it. You can protect your session against people messing on your phone with your fingerprint, face, or pass code.
This version of the Tor Browser also brings in WebAssembly management changes, for example, control over disabling WebAssembly has been moved to the bundled NoScript extension to address compatibility issues with Firefox’s internal PDF reader. The Tor Project said that Wasm is still disabled at the Safer and Safest security levels so that the attack surface is reduced but now works properly with privileged browser pages such as the PDF renderer.
If you’re on an older Android version, specifically, version 5.0, 6.0, or 7.0, Tor Browser 15.0 will be the last major release. It’s also the last major release for x86 CPUs for Linux and Android. This is all because Mozilla is increasing its minimum support requirements to Android 8.0. Tor Browser 16.0 will be released mid-next year.
Explaining the reasoning for the dropping of support, the Tor Project said:
“Although nobody wants to see support for their platform get dropped, it"s an important step to maintain the stability and security of both Firefox and Tor Browser over time, and will allow developers to utilize newer technologies in both browsers. In addition, supporting x86 for Android has been particularly challenging for our developers due to the 100MB package size limit imposed by Google Play. While we have deployed several workarounds to stay within this limit in the recent past, these often come at a cost – such as x86 Android users missing out on the Conjure pluggable transport, for example.”
You can now download the latest version of the Tor Browser for the Tor download page.