Think Your Obscure Browser Is Safe? Think Again.

wxwax

I think a number of people believe they're safe browsing the internet becuase they use Mozilla Firefox, or Safari, instead of Internet Explorer.

Time to wake up and smell the hackers (they smell like Diet Coke and Mentos.)

hackers found 47 bugs in Mozilla's open-source browsers and 38 bugs in Microsoft Internet Explorer during the first six months of this year. That's up significantly from the 17 Mozilla and 25 IE bugs found in the previous six months.

Even Apple's Safari browser saw its bugs double, jumping from six in the last half of 2005 to 12 in the first half of 2006. Opera was the only browser tracked by Symantec that saw the number of vulnerabilities decline, but not by much. Opera bugs dropped from nine to seven during the period.

And while Internet Explorer remained the most popular choice of attackers, no one is invulnerable. According to the report, 31 percent of attacks during the period targeted more than one browser, and 20 percent took aim at Mozilla's Firefox.

Even though I'm a Mac newbie owner, I don't buy into the claim that Macs are invulnerable. Just as Mozilla is becoming more popular, so too are Macs... and usage is the honey that draws the hacker. It's nice to see that Opera is relatively safe. When it's not crashing, that is.

Anyway, just a dose of unpleasant reality about browser, all browser, vulnerability.

Andy

Meh, *any* of them are better than IE6. Practice safe browsing

IMO:

Safari - sexy, darn near the fastest browser but not color-aware for the net

FF - way cool extensions, best overall heavy-duty browsing experience

Opera - I'm playing with it again, the built in mail client is pretty darn cool!

botanist

Andy wrote:

Meh, *any* of them are better than IE6. Practice safe browsing

IMO:

Safari - sexy, darn near the fastest browser but not color-aware for the net

FF - way cool extensions, best overall heavy-duty browsing experience

Opera - I'm playing with it again, the built in mail client is pretty darn cool!

Being a Mac guy myself, and a web (and Windows) developer I have to agree w/ Andy here. I've also tried numerous other browsers like Desk Browse (http://deskbrowse.com/) which has since fallen apart

Anywho, Safari is fantastic only in speed, it's rendering is definitely sub-par.

FF is my default go-to browser, hands down.

IE...they stopped supporting it on Macs and I stopped using it IE7 I'll give a shot at (since I dev windows apps @ work I have no choice) but only once its stable and "on the shelves" for 6 months.

Opera 9 is phenomenal, but the UI isn't as friendly as FF, at least not for what I need (powerful tabbed browsing, ie i just walked in the door and I have 6 tabs going already)...but I do run it occassionally

I'm not sure if you guys have tried it, but if you ever want to see how badly/wrong/etc browsers render the same code check out: http://www.browsercam.com/

As for security vulnerabilities...are you surprised? No code is safe, ESPECIALLY OPEN SOURCE. I'd LOVE to see M$ open the code for IE up to the public...you seriously think people wouldn't have it cracked in half in under an hour? lol Those security 'stats' are skewed...but if you really wanted to get into that I can.

wxwax

Opera sucks.

Period.

Almost every time I try to run a video, it crashes on my Macbook.

Andy

wxwax wrote:

Opera sucks.

Period.

Almost every time I try to run a video, it crashes on my Macbook.

Hmm... not for me. Try upgrading to latest? Set your prefs etc???

botanist

wxwax wrote:

Opera sucks.

Period.

Almost every time I try to run a video, it crashes on my Macbook.

:

It's not Opera, it's the plugin. Somehow the plugin for whatever video feed you're using is either corrupt or mis-appropriated.

But since I have no stock in any of the browsers feel free to bash away.

claudermilk

Hmm. Just a change of the theme I've been preaching. It doesn't matter what OS or browser you use, it has flaws that someone will eventually find and use to their advantage. You *must* take precautions if you're going the attach that CAT5 cable to the back of your box. Period. If you don't you deserve what you get.

With that, FF is far and away superior to the competition IMHO. Particularly IE & Opera. I played with Opera & hated it. Like many, I'm forced to use IE in some cases (though FF does have some partial workarounds to that). I've seen many security issues mentioned for FF since I started using it way back on v0.7--and they've been handled in a more timely fashion than the IE ones. Gotta love open source communities.

botanist

claudermilk wrote:

Hmm. Just a change of the theme I've been preaching. It doesn't matter what OS or browser you use, it has flaws that someone will eventually find and use to their advantage. You *must* take precautions if you're going the attach that CAT5 cable to the back of your box. Period. If you don't you deserve what you get.

With that, FF is far and away superior to the competition IMHO. Particularly IE & Opera. I played with Opera & hated it. Like many, I'm forced to use IE in some cases (though FF does have some partial workarounds to that). I've seen many security issues mentioned for FF since I started using it way back on v0.7--and they've been handled in a more timely fashion than the IE ones. Gotta love open source communities.

Right! Amen to that

Khaos

Firefox, on average, patches their flaws within 1 day. 1 day!

colourbox

wxwax wrote:

Even though I'm a Mac newbie owner, I don't buy into the claim that Macs are invulnerable.

Only irresponsible/naive Mac users ever make the claim that Macs are invulnerable. Apple Marketing is not exempt.

DavidTO

colourbox wrote:

Only irresponsible/naive Mac users ever make the claim that Macs are invulnerable. Apple Marketing is not exempt.

I don't know anyone that buys into that. I do buy into the fact that the anti-virus software can be more of a threat than viruses, though, and similar arguments. But I know my Mac is vulnerable. Any computer is. It's just a heckuva lot safer is all.

Shay Stephens

wxwax wrote:

I think a number of people believe they're safe browsing the internet becuase they use Mozilla Firefox, or Safari, instead of Internet Explorer.
...
Anyway, just a dose of unpleasant reality about browser, all browser, vulnerability.

Yup, totally right. And the old saw, security through obscurity, is so so wrong.

LuckyBob

I've been a fan of Opera for quite sometime as far as speed and standards compliance. The versions newer than 9 are faster than anything else out of the box right now factoring in the feature set, and in more than a few cases *the* fastest), it has no known vulnerabilities (yet), and it has just about the best standards set of any browser out there. I'll grant there are aspects I don't like about the interface, but FireFox is just SO slow in comparison, and IE is... well... IE

Speaking of Opera... I wonder if there's a fix for vBulletin's WYSIWYG editor... Andy and company ?


Re: Features and security: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_web_browsers
Re: Speed: http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html

TomaS

DropMyRights - for WinXP safe(r) surfing
THIS little gem will significanly upgrade any browser to a safer one on Windows. If you have admin privliges (as most users do), it reduces those rights when the app launches, preventing hackers from gaining access to the registry and installing malware from inside the browser - or email client or whatever app you attach it to that connects to the web.

I have used FF for years and only resort to IE when requred - usually to get patches off a MS site.