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Serious Security Flaw Found In Microsoft Internet Explorer


threegee

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"Users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer are being urged by experts to switch to a rival until a serious security flaw has been fixed."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7784908.stm

Useful links:

http://www.mozilla-europe.org/en/firefox/

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Nice quote... any links to back that up, or is that your own personal experience/views?

if so, i'd like to hear more, as its what i use religiously...

Quote? Where from? There are uninformed views and informed views. When there's nothing to back up a view it's fair to say it falls into the first category.

I use FF simply because it's the default browser for Ubuntu Linux, no religious belief is involved; except... that long experience convinces me that open source software is inherently better. Hiding your mistakes (with a likely view to profiting from them) is no substitute for letting other experts look over what you've done and picking up potential problems you've missed.

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Nice quote... any links to back that up, or is that your own personal experience/views?

if so, i'd like to hear more, as its what i use religiously...

sorry no i cant find the article!!! it was on the bbc web site a few weeks ago something about the top ten security issues it came 2nd to msn and mcafee was third!!!!

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sorry no i cant find the article!!! it was on the bbc web site a few weeks ago something about the top ten security issues it came 2nd to msn and mcafee was third!!!!

really...

that surprises me!

the circle i follow really rate it as one of the best around...

i'll have to do some digging now!

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  • 1 year later...

Once again! This time it's being exploited by the Chinese Govt. to hack into dissident's machines, and is behind the recent Google threats to withdraw from China.

http://www.microsoft...ory/979352.mspx

In a specially-crafted attack, in attempting to access a freed object, Internet Explorer can be caused to allow remote code execution.

If you must continue to use this flawed product then at least make sure:

the code execution protection is turned on

the Windows Firewall is enabled

you aren't using Vista in Admin mode

you steer clear of iffy websites - particularly Chinese ones

and you whop up the security level for the "Internet" zone to high. [Tools->Internet Options->Security Tab]

The last will stop it running ActiveX stuff - which is often at the heart of these sorts of problems.

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If you must continue to use this flawed product then at least make sure:

the code execution protection is turned on

the Windows Firewall is enabled

you aren't using Vista in Admin mode

you steer clear of iffy websites - particularly Chinese ones

and you whop up the security level for the "Internet" zone to high. [Tools->Internet Options->Security Tab]

The last will stop it running ActiveX stuff - which is often at the heart of these sorts of problems.

its not a flawed product more a targeted product because of it success! we all know I.E even if we hate it, it has to be admired. i have used loads of browsers such as firefox, opera, safari, netscape, chrome, etc etc and have to say they all have flaws firefox is one of the buggiest heaps of !*!@# i have ever used (using it know!!!)chrome is not much better. opera is good but not every page supports opera. and the rest are not worth talking about. the only reason i use firefox is for the addons such as ad block etc other wise i would be using opera and i.e 8!

as for your advice i personally would just install a good internet security package i.e kaspersky or nod32 or similar. as i would not trust windows firewall to protect my pc!! as for iffy chinese web sites wouldn't know about that sort of thing! :lol:

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its not a flawed product more a targeted product because of it success! we all know I.E even if we hate it, it has to be admired. i have used loads of browsers such as firefox, opera, safari, netscape, chrome, etc etc and have to say they all have flaws firefox is one of the buggiest heaps of !*!@# i have ever used (using it know!!!)chrome is not much better. opera is good but not every page supports opera. and the rest are not worth talking about. the only reason i use firefox is for the addons such as ad block etc other wise i would be using opera and i.e 8!

as for your advice i personally would just install a good internet security package i.e kaspersky or nod32 or similar. as i would not trust windows firewall to protect my pc!! as for iffy chinese web sites wouldn't know about that sort of thing! laugh.gif

So how is an anti-vi going to protect you from a flawed piece of software like MSIE running compromised ActiveX controls?

This has nothing to do with "bugs". Leaving dangling pointers around is amateur coding in the extreme, and yet this multi-billion dollar organisation keeps on doing it. Maybe that's because of the uncritical customer base who doesn't know any better.

The big difference between MS code and everyone else's is that it's closed source and so can't be inspected for obvious flaws. To someone who doesn't write software that's probably only an academic issue. But constant peer review is how good software is written, and little that comes out of Seattle has ever been good software.

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Goodness, how did you get that graphic past the moderators!

Think I'd better hit the complaint button. tongue.gif

BTW when are they going to issue the patch for the patch?

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