Web Browser News and Reviews » Security

Future Firefox Releases To Include Sandboxing And More

Vygantas Lipskas — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 20:48:00 +0000

If you are wondering what Mozilla has been up to recently, then this article is a good starting point.

According to Johnathan Nightingale, Mozilla’s Director of Firefox Engineering, the company has been quite busy at brainstorming and implementing new ideas to improve Firefox’s security,

First in the list is the JIT (just in time) compiler hardening, which should protect users against JIT spraying attacks.

“The reality is that the way our JIT engine is built makes it somewhat resilient to JIT Spraying attacks,” Johnathan said. “But there is still work we can do on that class of vulnerability to just get it out of the realm of even the theoretical — and that work is ongoing.”

In addition to that, it looks like Mozilla is looking at the Google’s Chrome sandboxing feature, which significantly browser’s security. However, the mentioned term usage has been somewhat vague and with no mention in implementation date,

“Sandboxing has some real benefits, but it’s not a silver bullet, it is something that our platform team is looking at really closely.”

As far as updates go, Nightingale has stated that Mozilla will be improving the way Firefox handles security updates, which should require little to no interaction from the end user aka Silent Updates, which we detailed sometime last year.

So here you have it folks and in case you are wondering about the release date of Firefox 10, which will not include the mentioned features, it’s January 31st.

[Thanks, Ichan]

[Via: eSecurityPlanet]

Is This Opera Mini? No, Chuck Testa

Vygantas Lipskas — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 16:30:54 +0000

According to the latest TrendMicro report, malware creators have found a new toy to play with: Opera Mini.

A Russian web site that loads for mobile users only and looks similar to the Opera.com home page now offers a piece of malware, disguised as OperaMini.jar

Upon visit, a user is notified about the new update that should be downloaded, which, when installed, will start sending text messages to premium numbers.

So much for those bandwidth savings, eh?

[Thanks, Ichan]

The Evolution Of The Web

Vygantas Lipskas — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 08:06:10 +0000

Do you remember using Netscape Navigator or Mosaic? What about constantly evolving web standards and other web technologies?

With the help of recently created web page, you can now relive those memories and dive into the ocean of oblivion.

Click here to do that now.

[Thanks, Ichann]

Beware Of The Windows 8 UX Pack 2.0 Malware

Vygantas Lipskas — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 07:12:47 +0000

Recently, an application called Windows 8 UX Pack 2.0 was released, designed to make your OS look like Windows 8.

If you are as excited as some people are, then downloading it is a no brainer. However, be warned:

After installing and uninstalling the software (did not work for me), I have noticed that it has hijacked my web browsers settings with no warning. Not just Microsoft’s Internet Explorer’s, but also Mozilla’s Firefox and Opera’s (Chrome was not touched).

Instead of using the last tab session, 3 out of 4 web browsers would now have a setting changed to load the home page, which is set to the (presumably) author’s web site.

Turns out, you can’t even trust the “tested for malware” logos on some of the most popular download networks.

Weekly Browsers Recap, June 21st

Vygantas Lipskas — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 05:33:24 +0000

[Thanks, Ichan]

Weekly Browsers Recap + Bonus Links, June 13th

Vygantas Lipskas — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 07:16:22 +0000

FavBrowser.com

Bonus

[Thanks, Ichan]

Weekly Browsers Recap + Bonus Links, June 6th

Vygantas Lipskas — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 18:45:01 +0000

FavBrowser.com

Bonus

[Thanks, Ichan]

Weekly Browsers Recap + Bonus Links, May 30th

Vygantas Lipskas — Mon, 30 May 2011 18:36:58 +0000

FavBrowser.com

Bonus

Firefox Gets about:permissions For More Privacy Control

Armin Seuchter — Thu, 26 May 2011 15:41:05 +0000

The nightly builds of Firefox have received a new tool in the form of about:permissions. Typing about:permissions into the address bar welcomes one with a dashboard that lets you configure cookies, geolocation, pop ups, password keeping, and offline storage access on a per site basis.

If passwords have previously been set for a specific site, about:permissions will permit the viewing and removal of these passwords. One can also administer and get rid of cookies that sites have cached on the system or forget a site completely, eradicating it from Firefox’s memory.

Mozilla has displayed a keen focus on user privacy in recent releases with the likes of the Private Browsing mode and Do Not Track. The inclusion of a centralized dashboard which allows users to remain in charge of site permissions and data is a logical next step in the evolution of Firefox.

Weekly Browsers Recap + Bonus Links, May 23rd

Vygantas Lipskas — Mon, 23 May 2011 19:35:36 +0000