browsers « Mrs. Mecomber's Scrapbook

Posts Tagged browsers

Gaping Hole in Internet Explorer

Jul 6

Posted by Mrs. Mecomber in browsers, security news | 5 Comments

In a rare move, Microsoft has released a statement notifying the public of a severe vulnerability in their software that they have not a fix for, yet.

Microsoft is investigating a privately reported vulnerability in Microsoft Video ActiveX Control. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the local user. When using Internet Explorer, code execution is remote and may not require any user intervention.

We are aware of attacks attempting to exploit the vulnerability.

Our investigation has shown that there are no by-design uses for this ActiveX Control in Internet Explorer which includes all of the Class Identifiers within the msvidctl.dll that hosts this ActiveX Control. For Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 customers, Microsoft is recommending removing support for this ActiveX Control within Internet Explorer using all the Class Identifiers listed in the Workaround section. Though unaffected by this vulnerability, Microsoft is recommending that Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 customers remove support for this ActiveX Control within Internet Explorer using the same Class Identifiers as a defense-in-depth measure.

Yikes.

Microsoft has a fix for this, but it will basically shut down ActiveX functionality for your Internet Explorer browser.

Other choices are to dump Internet Explorer altogether, and go with Firefox or Opera.

Tags: ActiveX, browsers, Microsoft, security

Opera for Superior Browsing

Dec 8

Posted by Mrs. Mecomber in browsers | 2 Comments

I use the Opera browser. I just love it. I had always been a Firefox user, but after the 3.0 upgrade, it just never worked well for me, not on any of my computers. The other computers in the house had the same issue. And then, Firefox would no longer work when I went on the wireless with my laptop. The connection would last maybe 1-3 minutes, and Firefox would always say “loading” but never load. I tried EVERYTHING to resolve it. Finally, in frustration, I dumped FF and downloaded Opera.

Opera takes some getting used to (remember how hard it was to adjust from Internet Explorer to Firefox??), but it’s worth it. It’s much, MUCH faster than Firefox, and it has some nice additional features, like a notepad area in the sidebar. But I like it best of all because it is so fast.

Here are some pros and cons I have found. I hope the Opera dudes continue to develop the browser, as it has a lot going for it.

Pros:
Intense speed
Reliable, rarely crashes
Different skins and colors
Has excellent Options features
Very user friendly
Can customize keyboard shortcuts– tons and tons of options!

Cons:
Some javascript didn’t work (and therefore some blog themes look messy)
Does not have an Auto Complete (I really miss that feature)
Doesn’t have many addons (the widgets you can download are very lame)
Doesn’t resize some photos in my Wordpress Admin blog pages
Doesn’t have as good a search toolbar as Firefox (no Groowe toolbar)
No toolbars will work with it

I found this little table at the Opera site– it’s a list of preferences for your Opera config preferences data (Firefox has this option, too– type “about:config” in the address bar.

I’d like to see Opera developed more. Perhaps as more people realize what great browser it is, it will be developed more. If you are looking for speed and reliability, check out Opera.

Tags: browsers, Firefox, Opera