Symantec: Mozilla browsers more vulnerable than IE

ZDNet News ^ | 9/19/2005 | Tom Espiner

[an amused spectator]

Symantec admitted that "at the time of writing, no widespread exploitation of any browser except Microsoft Internet Explorer has occurred," but added that it "expects this to change as alternative browsers become increasingly widely deployed."

Most of the machines I work on that are compromised typically are owned by Net semi-literates who use only IE.

There is one caveat: Symantec counts only those security flaws that have been confirmed by the vendor.

Ding! We have a winner! The sun don't come up in the East if you refuse to admit it...

[DCPatriot]

hmmmm .... so when anti-MS reports are put out, it's the gosplel truth

I didn't say that.

I said that to slow Mazilla down, the most respected security software company suddenly says Mozilla is more vulnerable than IE.

I've used IE since Windows arrived.

My computer has experienced less problems with Mozilla. That's all I need to see.

[softwarecreator]

That's what I have installed and when I use IE there are very few "intrusions".  It really does work pretty well.

[Terpfen]

Currently, it's not considered a bug per se, it's just how the Gecko engine keeps up with web pages that suddenly grow in size.

A few people are lobbying on Bugzilla to have this corrected, but it's not going anywhere yet, since the devs have bigger headaches than page positioning right now.

Of course, FF 1.5 will have 3200+ bugfixes: this might be among them.

[an amused spectator]

Coincidentally, Symantic is in the business of selling software that's largely based on false perception of vulnerability when good administrative network practices would suffice.

Symantec: RAM-sucking garbage that's nearly impossible to uninstall when you get a decent anti-virus program that's freeware.

Guaranteed to promise computer neophytes the world, then leave their machines exposed when the trial period runs out.

[jdm]

"Be sure to keep active X going. That's where all the fun comes from ;-)"

Active X is your friend!

[Artemis Webb]

All I know is I that after 8 months or so of using Firefox I have far fewer problems that can be blamed on my web browser. Not zero problems mind you...but far fewer.

[softwarecreator]

My computer has experienced less problems with Mozilla.

I do agree that from my experience FF has been less vulnerable to pop-ups and other spyware.  I have a router, firewall and anti-virus so I don't get too many "attacks" anyway.

Thing is, as most of us have said all along, the more popular FF becomes, the more appetizing it will become for hackers and that is starting to happen.

[an amused spectator]

So do I, but if you would have seen all the crowing about IE's vulnerability by some people on the tech pings, you would know why we are taking a wee bit of satisfaction in this.

I saw a caveat in the article, didn't you?

IE: caveat emptor

[an amused spectator]

Thing is, as most of us have said all along, the more popular FF becomes, the more appetizing it will become for hackers and that is starting to happen.

Agreed. IE's problem is that it IS the browser for the world at large.

[softwarecreator]

Be sure to keep active X going. That's where all the fun comes from

Active X has made me quite of bit of money over the years because companies have paid me to convert their Active X web sites into something less vulnerable to attack.

[N3WBI3]

We have a study which just counts bugs and not one that considers how severe the bugs are..

[Al Simmons]

"hmmmm .... so when anti-MS reports are put out, it's the gosplel truth ... but when a report comes out that makes MS look good it's a bribe or conspiracy. Makes sense, I guess."

What makes sense to me is my own experience that IE allowed trojans, pop-up ads and cookies to infect my computer like water going through a sieve, until it started screwing with my ability to run some programs; I cleaned the s*** out, got FF and the problem stopped. Any questions?

[softwarecreator]

We have a study which just counts bugs and not one that considers how severe the bugs are..

Ah, but this is only the beginning ... FF is quickly getting onto the radar of the hackers and the vulnerabilities will grow more severe as they pry deeper and deeper in mozilla's holes.  Don't forget, hackers have had 10 years to pick thru IE, as opposed to a couple of years with FireFox.

[Gee Wally]

This is all you need to know from this story:

According to security monitoring company Secunia, there are 19 security issues that Microsoft still has to deal with for Internet Explorer, while there are only three for Firefox.

[don-o]

i love FF too but hate the inability to stay at the post I am at when i refresh the page -

Why would you want to refresh in the middle of reading a thread?

[N3WBI3]

None of these are rated extremely critical by secunia... As opposed to 14% rated that bad for ie.

In addition only 14% of FF are still unpatched as opposed to 28% for IE

The largest source of FF vulnerabilities are spoofing (turn off IDN), the largest source of IE bugs are system access..

FF is a safer browser to use than IE, not perfect but a bit more secure..

[N3WBI3]

If it takes a half truth to make MS look good (ignoring severity and longjecvity) its kinda sad for ie users..