Firefox/Opera/Netscape Security Flaw!

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http://www.techworld.com/news/index.cfm?newsID=3098

A recent major security flaw has been found in every browser on the market. Except one: Internet Explorer walks away free.

 

Must be getting chilly for your avatar Rastor, what with hell freezing over and all.

 

Yeah, and the pigs got wings too. I saw them flying towards south today.

 

Bah, if more people used Firefox, then the new bugs would show that firefox is as leak as a spongue, so your best bet is not Firefox because it's Open Source, it's the underdog, because who ever would write virusses for the underdog?

 

Wow. I seem to recall a bug related to SSL verification cropping up in both IE & KDE Konqueror a couple of years ago... Konqueror got patched within a coupla hours, whereas Micro$oft hadn't even made up a press release by then! Strange they should seem to be ahead of the game this time; it's most unlike them!

Still, they get that much stick for everything else they do so poorly / immorally we can let them have this lone gleaming, I think! Bottom line: it's not gonna stop me using Firefox, because it's just that much better a program all round than IE. If I even believe the article, which I'm not sure about - although that's more due to anti-M$ bias than reason, I suspect . . .

 

I'm with Magpie. Since using Firefox I haven't had the problems I had before even with SpyBot and other programs installed. I'm careful about giving out sensitive information. Just use common sense with the Internet.

 

Exactly. And the best thing about using Firefox is that special "pop-ups, what pop-ups?" feeling you get. Priceless.

 

I agree with Morgoth 100%. The main reason that Firefox doesn't have so many virus problems is because people aren't making viruses, trojans, and adware/spyware targeted towards firefox and the other underdogs. But give it a couple of years; once Firefox and the others become more and more popular, all the security hols they have will become evident.

 

The article is 100% true.

Kitrax and Morgoth are right. Once Firefox becomes more popular, it'll be as notorious as IE. Unfortunately, the open-source of it means that anyone can get their hands on the source code which makes it much easier to write a virus or other problematic program than it is for IE.

 

That's the main reason I why I don't understand why all these people are jumping on the Open-source bandwagon. Virus makers have full access to the program's code, so they can make one hell of a nasty virus.

 

Hm. And it also means that - because everyone has full access to the source code - it is more likely that someone benevolent will find a leak. And fix it.

The fact that there has been virus after virus for Microsoft products tells me that there is no connection between source code <-> makeability of virus.

And, as an afterthought: if it's safe, it's safe, no matter what. If it's sensible (ActiveX? Duh!) and well written there won't be any room for bugs and exploits.

And what better QA is there than the whole world wide community of coders?

Only time will tell, but I expect Firefox to always be ahead IE in the field of security.

Oh, and it's fast as hell...

 

Oh, that makes sense, the fact that not-really-that-good programmers who work for free can spot a bug sooner that the best programmers in the world, right.

MS has the best programmers in the world, the only reason why it crashes so many times is because:
1. It has to be backwards compatible.
2. Its written by professionals, for computer-ignorant
people.
As opposed to written by professionals for professionals, like linux(which is going the way of MS), UNIX and BSD.
3. You can't handle a computer.

 

These are both legitimate arguments. While the Open-Source architecture does lend itself to abuse, it also makes it easier for professional programmers to lend a hand in improving it. However, the benevolent programmers have to be willing to take the time to fix these bugs, which probably isn't going to happen.

Morgoth pretty much got the points spot on as to why IE has the security flaws it does. To be frank, IE is a much more versatile browser than anything on the market and as such is more easily abused.

Firefox crashes a lot more for me than IE ever has. The worst IE crashes that I ever got just made me restart the browser. If Firefox crashes, I have to restart the computer.

Not true. There's always a possibility for bugs and exploits.

 

Ah, this is fun, isn't it? Look at us talking like we were experts, hm?

Let me have another go then:

Best programmers of the world: I didn't know there were benchmarks on this. Is there some kind of competition? A championship of programming arts? With MS rocking the ball every year and tears in the eyes of the poor unprofessional spare-time-hackers? Maybe there's something like a official Coca Cola sponsored ranking? Gimme a break.

The open source community may be slow, right enough. But even Microsoft takes ages to fix well known bugs every so often. Best programmers of the world? One would think those wizards would only need to place their hands on the hard disk and - whoosh - the bugs are gone.

Frankly, I don't care why Windows crashes every so often. They may have every problem with backwards compatibility - but I don't think it is my job as a consumer to sit in front of a blue screen and think "Oh well, another five pages of my PhD thesis down the drain. Life's so hard for the poor brillant MS programmers, they surely are not responsible with all those backwards thingy issues and all that."

And then: Windows is made for people who can't handle a PC? Okay. Fair enough. The more reason for the OS to be fool proof. You can kill it with a few mouse clicks? Hm. Maybe it is for advanced users then? For people who know what a driver is? Who know how to set up an account without full administrative rights?

If you're looking for an ease-of-use, out-of-the-box system I'd recommend Mac. Windows surely isn't up to that task.

Normally I tend to think along the same lines: MS bashing is not fair, because of illegit comparisons between open source and MS. The same is true the other way round, of course. As of today we only know that Firefox and systems like Linux are less prone to virus attacks and stability issues. Everything else is just a theory. I don't think that it is possible to forecast the future of Firefox vs. IE without reasonable data. So why behave like it was all sorted out? It's just a bloody Firefox-will-go-down-the-drain-when-it-gains-in-popularity-theory.

Oh, and I'm surely no long time Linux fanatic. As a matter of fact I've installed Linux (SuSE 9.2 to be precise - shh, Wirhe, don't tell them I'm a newbie) only three weeks ago. And I'm quite enthusiastic. Installation works like a charm. No issues. Takes only half an hour. You enter the desktop: and it's all there! Can you imagine? No need to go for five thousand different CD's with drivers and stuff. No, it's all set-up and working. I'm impressed. Never wxperienced that with any MS install I ever did.

It's a sad thing that the best programmers of the world are so closefisted with their talent, eh?

PS: Wow, a 100% Linux vs. MS rant. Again: I'm impressed...

Disclaimer: I rarely encounter any bugs or crashes, neither with MS, IE, Firefox or something else. I'm a satisfied MS customer. And yet...

 

Yes, next on is in Shanghai: Link

Actually I meant it as in:
Well, it can't be Linux having the best programmers ey? I mean what is the deal with building a distribution?
Getting the latest Kernel + collecting all the drivers + X server + GNOME + KDE, tadaaaaaaaa.

I just think that it creates more talent to remove the bugs from a OS while still making it compatible with the rest, as opposed to paste software together.

 

Yeah, but MS isn't a university, right? I don't want to spend money (and not little!) on a product that is bugged from here to Mars just because I'm secure in the knowledge that my constant pain with the OS at least creates (or needs) talent in some other part of the world...

Apart from that, Windows could be much safer if it would handle user rights as restrictively as Linux. From the very beginning, that is. But to change every user profile AFTER the user has been set up? Seems flawed to me.

 

Damn nerds, whats so fun about making a virus? Burn em all, I say

 

I'm with you Bahir! Burn the bloody virus making nerd scum! Just leave the gentle computer geeks alone...

I think it should be an international crime at the highest level to make a virus...and if they tie it to terrorism, the Bureu of Homland Security will actually have something to do.