Opera Software has released a new maintenance version of their Opera 9.6 series. As with previous releases this one is oriented towards security once more, with some hidden extras for the Windows people out there.

Let's spoil the new stuff first, Windows users will enjoy from some platform specific code: DEP (Data Execution Prevention) in XP/2003 or ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization) in Vista. Either of these technologies should help make Opera itself safer as it prevents execution from certain parts of the memory as well as knowledge of the key areas of data. Do note that Chrome already has this since release.

Other security fixes in Opera 9.64 include: an extremely severe issue where a JPEG image could allow the execution of arbitrary code, plug-ins could be used to allow cross domain scripting and an undisclosed moderately severe issue... Besides these important issues there are fixes for certificates (including EV), SSL/TLS, and more.

Opera Software recommends all Opera users to upgrade to this latest release.