Firefox's security coming under scrutiny

Firefox's security coming under scrutiny
Robert Lemos, SecurityFocus 2005-05-12

Mozilla developers say that the browser had security built into the design, but that has not stopped flaw finders from pinpointing problems with Firefox.

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Firefox's security coming under scrutiny 2005-05-12
Matthew Murphy (3 replies)

Mr. Lemos, you should be careful to avoid indicting Firefox as buggier than Internet Explorer. It most certainly is not. Yes, vulnerabilities have been found in Firefox, but that was to be expected, was it not?

Given the fact that no major software product (open or closed source) on today's mar...

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Firefox's security coming under scrutiny 2005-05-14
Daryl Shockey

I see an awful lot of unbridled, borderline-religious zeal in these discussions. I agree that Firefox is a good product and I think it's good that Microsoft has a real competitor making headway in the browser market. It means that both organizations had better innovate and put out a good product les...

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Firefox's security coming under scrutiny 2005-05-15
Coldman

> Firefox, as a standalone component, is more easily isolated from the rest of the system (e.g, by running it under different user accounts).

IE (and anything else) is also easily isolated, by running it under different user account. This is all about "good practices" and security awareness of t...

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Re: Firefox's security coming under scrutiny 2005-07-07
Danny Boy

Thanks for the Mozilla spin on this topic. But as is already pointed in the original piece, and which you tried hard to hide, is that IE is indeed a tougher browser now, and that FF is overrated when it comes to security. The truth is, there are fewer interested parties trying to find flaws in FF, y...

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Firefox's security coming under scrutiny 2005-05-13
Anonymous

Any software over the Internet should have to be scrutonized for security and Firefox would be no exception. The great thing with this overtaking browser is that the response time for getting fixes is far better than IE and that should matter a lot to anyone to minimize damage.

Mark it, with the cu...

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Firefox's security coming under scrutiny 2005-05-13
Anonymous (1 replies)

check Secunia page for IE vs. FF.

There are highly critical vulns in IE which wait a patch since months.

Critical vulns in FF took 5 days to be fixed.

Simone...

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Firefox's security coming under scrutiny 2005-05-16
Anonymous

that's only possible because they do little to no testing. you might as well be pulling it directly out of cvs....

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It's impossible to write secure software 2005-05-13
Aenox (2 replies)

The effects are noticable in the obsessive fan community. They've moved on from "Firefox is secure. Internet explorer has a zillion unpatched flaws." to "All software has bugs. It's impossible to write secure software."

People should be encouraged to use Firefox because it's a good browser, has n...

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nonexistent code execution bugs 2005-05-13
Anonymous

Here's one. Discovered in December 2004.

http://gossamer-threads.com/lists/fulldisc/full-disclosure/30100

The vulnerability is still unpatched. And here someone had discovered it, in the wild, this very day.

http://gossamer-threads.com/lists/fulldisc/full-disclosure/33718

Yes, very non...

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It's impossible to write secure software 2005-05-14
Aenox

Note: I posted my comment before the previous three that support my post were shown....

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doesn't surprise me 2005-05-13
mmm

a browser coded by 18 year old and exploited my 16 year old!...

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Firefox's security coming under scrutiny 2005-05-13
Paul (Greyhats)

People that posted comments before me, you are missing the point. I never said anything about the response time. I merely claimed about the difficulty of vulnerability finding in Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer could leave every one of it's vulnerabilities open and never produce a patch for all...

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Firefox's security coming under scrutiny 2005-05-13
Todd Knarr

I think though that there's a fundamental difference between Firefox's security problems and IE's. It can be summed up simply: "The problems in Firefox are bugs in the code that should be eliminated. The problems in IE are design features that must be kept for reasons unrelated to security.".

Tak...

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Missed the point. The critical difference. 2005-05-13
Anonymous

FireFox tells you there faults so you can take counter measures. IE does not.

FireFox is still safer.

Counter measures options where also built in by default. Just had to disable the installer until the next version.

Complex explots are even posible on Internet Explorer I love rebooting w...

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Firefox's security coming under scrutiny 2005-05-14
Aaron

Those interested in this chain of conversation should read the posts to this article (also on FF security):

http://www.securityfocus.com/cgi-bin/sfonline/news.pl?id=11119...

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Firefox's security coming under scrutiny 2005-05-15
Anonymous

I feel that the issue here is not the total vulnerabilities found in either of the browsers, but really boils down to the popularity of the software. As FF becomes more widely used, and gets even remotely close to taking a cut of what is undoubtably an MS based market, we will see more flaws exposed...

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Firefox's security coming under scrutiny 2005-05-16
Groove

Firefox posted the fix days after the vulnerability was reported. I don't have to wait until "Patch Tuesday" on the following month.

The best thing is I can install the update WITHOUT having to reboot my PC, making it far less painful. This has not been the case with MSIE....

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Firefox's security coming under scrutiny 2005-06-02
KillMeister

What this really comes down to....

Education : Who's 16 yr. old kid came up w. finding this security flaw?

Wasn't from the US more than likely; unless the kid was from Redmond or Silicone Valley or the land of Intel..

Yes : opensource will always be buggy; that's one of the reasons it is OPEN! W...

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