Weekly Browsers Recap, August 23rd

FavBrowser.com

• The History of Internet Explorer
As Microsoft celebrates the 15th birthday of Internet Explorer, lets dive into the past and see how it all started…

• Is Internet Explorer the Modern Times Jesus?
Before we begin… If you are easily offended Christian, just skip this post.
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Mozilla Bumps Cash Rewards for Security Vulnerabilities Reports

In what appears to be a great benefit for Firefox users, Mozilla has recently bumped its cash rewards salary from mere $500 to $3000. Therefore, it will likely increase Firefox security, as developers are keen on finding and reporting new security vulnerabilities.

In addition, company has announced that this offer not only includes Firefox, but also Firefox Mobile web browser.

Tab Phishing

Now here is a clever one.

As Mozilla Firefox creative lead Aza Raskin describes it, the attack is as elegant as it is simple: A user has multiple tabs open, and surfs to a site that uses special javacript code to silently alter the contents of a tabbed page along with the information displayed on the tab itself, so that when the user switches back to that tab it appears to be the login page for a site the user normally visits.

Even with NoScript plugin installed, users were still vulnerable. Fortunately, May 27th update fixes that.

German Government: Stop Using Firefox

Back in January, German government urged users to start using Firefox instead of Internet Explorer.

Well, due to security vulnerabilities (that were fixed in Firefox 3.6.2), they asked users to stop using Firefox as well, at least until patch is released.

So here you have it: start using Firefox, then stop, and now… Start using it again…

Thanks to Daniel Hendrycks and Ichann for the news tip.

Pwn2Own: Internet Explorer 8, 7 vs. Firefox 3 vs. Chrome 4 vs. Safari 4

In the upcoming Pwn2Own contest, hackers will be trying to “pwn” Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Apple Safari web browsers. Competition will be active for three days, with a total cash prize pool of $40 000, where each target is worth $10 000.

Contestants will be trying to exploit:

Day 1
Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 on Windows 7 Read more

Pwning Opera Unite with Inferno’s Eleven

Guys from SecureThoughts.com decided to do a research on Opera Unite security and share some insights.

1. Enumerating Service Owner Usernames
Use: site:operaunite.com search query in search engine to build a list.

2. Enumerating Computer names for a particular Service Owner
“If you visit the service homepage with any non-existent computer name, then Opera Unite happily discloses all computer names used by that person.” Read more

Security: Internet Explorer is King of the Hill, According to NSS Labs

Back in March, NSS Labs has revealed shocking statistics which suggested that Internet Explorer 8 had best effectiveness results against malware.

As of today, Neowin reports that NSS Labs has yet again tested all web browsers to find out which one has best built-in protection against phishing.

Tested web browsers:

Safari 4
Chrome 2
Internet Explorer 8
Firefox 3
Opera 10 Beta Read more

Mozilla to Patch Critical Firefox 3.5 Vulnerability

Soon enough we will see Firefox 3.5.1 release as Mozilla is working hard to fix the critical security flaw.

Meanwhile, you may temporary mitigate it by disabling JIT in the JavaScript engine, to do so:

Type about:config in the location bar
Search for javascript.options.jit.content, double click it to set it to false.

Mac OS X 10.5.7 Update

The latest Mac OS X 10.5.7 update resolves few security issues for both, Safari 4 and 3.2.3 web browsers.

To get more details, please visit the following:

About the Safari 4 Public Beta Security Update
About the security content of Safari 3.2.3

Firefox – Browser with the Most Disclosed Vulnerabilities

From .PDF (download)

“This year, Secunia published advisories for the four most widely used web browsers: Internet Explorer (IE), Safari, Opera, and Mozilla Firefox. 31 vulnerabilities were reported for Internet Explorer (IE 5.x, 6.x, and 7), including those publicly disclosed prior to vendor patch as well as those included in Microsoft Security Bulletins. Read more

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