Category: Security
Mobile Internet Explorer Reveals Typed Passwords
Now here’s something that should definitely concern you. According to the recent report, there is a way to reveal typed in passwords in the Internet Explorer 11 (on Windows Phone 8).
All you have to do is:
– Enable Cortana if not yet enabled
– Type the password
– Highlight the password (we’re talking about ******) and then hit the search button
– Congratulations, you are now seeing a supposedly hidden password
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What’s The Most Vulnerable Web Browser? Internet Explorer
Apple tops the OS chart.
In the recently published study by GFI, which took a database of vulnerabilities that were published in 2014 and created a chart that makes sense, it looks like Microsoft‘s Internet Explorer still has a long way to go until it‘s no longer the most vulnerable web browser out there.
As you can see in the chart below, the top application by vulnerabilities reported in 2014 was indeed Internet Explorer (242), followed by Google Chrome (124) and Firefox (117).
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If You Bought A Lenovo, Be Worried
Greed 101.
If you have bought a Lenovo laptop this or last year and haven’t heard yet, one of the most successful PC makers has been caught installing adware on a number of machines with reports starting from mid-2014.
Basically, a software called Superfish is injecting third party ads on Google searches. Not only that, it also injects its own certificate, allowing to snoop on secure connections and decrypt them. Just take a look at this screenshot:
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Mozilla Will Start Enforcing Extension Signing
Finally.
In an effort to protects its users and reduce the number of malicious add-ons, the open source organization has announced its plans to enforce extension signing, which means that starting from Q2, 2015, developers will have to get a signature verification from Mozilla. The extension signing warnings will first appear on Firefox 39.
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Mozilla Partners With Tor & CDT
Forms a new privacy initiative called Polaris.
In an effort to protect its user’s privacy, Mozilla has announced a new strategic initiative with the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT) and the Tor Project, which they hope will support and advise Polaris projects that should benefit everyone.
As a result, two new experiments have been announced as well (under Polaris belt), focusing on anti-censorship technology, cross site tracking protection and anonymity. In addition to that, Mozilla will also start hosting Tor middle relays, which will make the whole Tor network more responsive.
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BrowserStack Gets Compromised
Tough luck.
BrowserStack, a paid service with over 25,000 customers (including eBay, Adobe and other giants) that allows you to test your web sites on more than 700 different web browser configurations, has been compromised.
The customers has since received the following email:
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Google Discovers Another SSL Exploit
Back in April, everyone was talking about “that Heartbleed thing”, now, it looks like the search giant has found a new exploit in the now 18 year’s old SSL 3.0 protocol, which is still supported in a lot of web browser and can also be used as a fallback in case newer protocols fail to connect.
How to fix it? Well, the server administrators could disable SSL 3.0 completely but that’s unlikely to happen anytime soon. As far as other solutions go, Google says that it can’t be fixed and there are no reasonable workarounds.
On a slightly positive note, it was discovered (and not fully revealed) by Google so no one knows how widespread it exactly is. So here you have it folks, an exploit that can’t be fixed.
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Google Triples Chrome’s Max Bounty
More money, more security.
After squashing more than 700 Chrome security bugs and paying a total of $1.25 in rewards, the search giant has decided to encourage hackers even more.
Starting from July 1, 2014 (yes, they are going backwards as a special treat even though they announced it recently), Google is upping the maximum reward range from $5000 to $15,000, which is triple of what they used to pay (although there were always few exceptions such as last month’s $30,000 pay for what they call to be “a very impressive report”.
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Improved Chrome Safe Browsing Filter Is Coming
Aims to block even more malware.
Back in 2013, Google has announced a Safe Browsing filter, which improves user experience by automatically blocking malicious downloads. Now, the search giant has announced additional steps to combat deceptive software.
Starting next week, Google Chrome will also protect users from programs that are disguised as a helpful download, for example: the ones that change your home page or adjust other web browser settings.
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Microsoft Starts Blocking Old ActiveX Plugins
Good bye, ActiveX.
In an effort to improve the overall browser security and reduce user frustration, the software giant has announced that it will start blocking outdated ActiveX controls starting August 12, 2014.
According to Microsoft, “Java exploits represented 84.6% to 98.5% of exploit kit-related detections each month in 2013” and “to help avoid this situation with ActiveX controls, an update to Internet Explorer on August 12, 2014 will introduce a new security feature, called out-of-date ActiveX control blocking.”
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