Firefox and IE together brew up security trouble

Users could face a “highly critical” risk if they have both IE and Firefox version 2.0, or later, loaded on their computer. The trouble begins when browsing a malicious site while using IE and it registers a “firefoxurl://” URI (uniform resource identifier) handler, which allows the browser to interact with specific resources on the Web. As a result, users may find their systems remotely compromised.
Earlier Tuesday, security researcher Thor Larholm, who discovered the IE flaw, and security research giant Symantec put much of the blame on IE, while Secunia’s Thomas Kristensen, chief technology officer, attributed the problem to Firefox versions 2.0 or later. “It’s a little bit of both,” said Oliver Friedrichs, director of Symantec’s Security Response Center. “You have two very complex applications that are not playing well together and leading to a security issue. The components themselves are secure as stand-alone products but not together.”

News source: News.com

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Fake Internet Explorer 8 Alpha screenshots!!!

A person at leneros.com has posted some of the images saying that the images actually are that of Internet Explorer 8 Alpha.The forum is in Spanish language so it may be difficult for some to understand.Here is the translated version of what he writes-

Internet Explorer 8 goes the development of the new explorer of Microsoft. At the moment, one knows that the greater priority of the company is to implement all the supports of RSS, CSS and AJAX within this new project.
In addition, also they have commented which this navigator will include support for the microformats, small labels written in code HTML that can be interpreted of different form, or like dates of a calendar or information of contact. The support for these microformats already was announced for the new version of Firefox, reason why Microsoft also will include it not to be behind its main competitor.
In fact, this new version of Internet Explorer is an answer towards Firefox 3, since Microsoft does not want that the navigator of Mozilla to them continues taking terrain. At the moment, the date of launching is not known, but Chris Wilson has announced that, at least, needs a year more development or even something more, reason why surely will be necessary to wait for near a year and means to be able to enjoy this new IE.

Here are some of the fake images of Internet Explorer 8 Alpha

Here is the link to full size images-
http://techtoday.110mb.com/wp-content/ieribbon1xv4.jpg
http://techtoday.110mb.com/wp-content/ieribbon3ph3.jpg
http://techtoday.110mb.com/wp-content/ieribbon4dk1.jpg
Source- Laneros.com

Update:As it looks it’s totally faked it has been photoshopped by someone who has simply combined Microsoft Office 2007 interface with that of Internet Explorer 7

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 has been released just take a look about it here

Safari 3.0.2 Beta

 Safari has always been the fastest browser on the Mac and now it’s the fastest browser on Windows, loading and drawing web pages up to twice as fast as Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 and up to 1.6 times faster than Mozilla Firefox 2.

Why you’ll love Safari:
* Blazing Performance2x Faster - Safari is the fastest web browser on any platform.
* Elegant User Interface - Safari’s clean look lets you focus on the web — not your browser.
* Easy Bookmarks - Organize your bookmarks just like you organize music in iTunes.
* Pop-up Blocking - Say goodbye to annoying pop-up ads and pop-under windows.
* Inline Find - Search any text on any website with the integrated Find banner.
* Tabbed Browsing - Open and switch between multiple web pages in a single window.
* SnapBackSnapback - Instantly snap back to search results or the top level of a website.
* Forms AutoFill - Let Safari complete online forms for you, automatically and securely.
* RSSBuilt-in RSS - RSS tells you when new content is added to your favorite sites.
* Resizable Text Fields - Resize text fields on any website: Just grab the corner and drag.
* Private Browsing - Keep your online activities private with a single click.
* Security - Apple engineers designed Safari to be secure from day one.
Download: Safari 3.0.2 Beta
View: Change log
Link: Safari Home Page

1 million Safari Downloads in 48 hours!!!

Apple has announced that it has shipped over 1 million copies of Safari 3 for Windows in the first 48 hours since the free public beta was made available.

Safari 3 is the fastest browser running on Windows, rendering web pages up to twice as fast as IE 7 and up to 1.6 times faster than Firefox 2, based on the industry standard iBench tests. Safari 3 supports all modern Internet standards including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SVG and Java. Safari updates are delivered seamlessly through Apple’s Software Update, and the first update for Safari for Windows Public Beta which fixes some early reported bugs was released last night.

Safari 3 for Windows requires Windows XP or Windows Vista, a minimum of 256 MB of memory and a system with at least a 500 MHz Intel Pentium processor.

Source: World of Apple

Windows Live Folders beta

One beta ends and suddenly five more spring up in its place. We can finally get the talk around Windows Live going again - the Windows Live Folders site has just opened up in preparation for the beta. (Please note the beta has not yet started, so the site will not work correctly.)

Update

So how does it work? Windows Live Folders allows you to upload your files to the cloud, providing access to them from an internet browser (both IE and Firefox are supported). The key part is using Windows Live ID to limit access to the files you have uploaded, allowing you to keep them private, share them with contacts, or make them public. With Windows Live, it’s the sum of the parts that gives it so much potential. Here’s a summary of the Folders service:

Personal

* Use personal folders to back up important files that are only for you.
* Get to your files from any computer with Internet access by signing in with your Windows Live ID.

Shared

* Shared folders make it easy to collaborate with coworkers or classmates.
* You decide how much control each person has over each shared folder. Some can just read what’s there: others can add and delete files.
* Everyone who is sharing uses their own Windows Live ID.

Public

* With public folders, anyone on the Internet can view your files, but they can’t change them.
* Want to show your public files to others? Just send them a link! Each folder and file has its own web address.

source- liveside

Mozilla: Firefox 3.0 opens door to Web apps

Firefox 3.0, the open-source browser which is slated for release in the second half of 2007, will include many new features, including offline support for Web applications and new bookmark and search features. While the final feature set hasn’t been determined, Firefox 3.0 will also contain elements for its 4.0 release and beyond: “What we’re trying to do with all of these things is lay the foundation,” said Mike Schroepfer, vice president for engineering for Mozilla, during a stop in London on Tuesday. Ultimately, Mozilla engineers are aiming for an integration between the browser and Web-based services that is as smooth-running as a desktop application. To do offline support, engineers have overcome the hurdle of how to storedata locally on the computer – the feature will make it into Firefox 3.0, although the user interface is still under development. Mozilla would also like to create a function where bookmarks could be automatically sorted based on popularity and frequency rather than the static presentation now.

Most importantly, Firefox has to be fast and standards-compliant, Schroepfer said. He also noted that extensions are sometimes to blame for abnormal use of system resources, and therefore Mozilla will soon set up a shared library of tested code that extension writers can download and use. Mozilla also relaunched its extension site, cutting back on the number of extensions listed so first-time users don’t overload their browsers and dampen their experience. In a few weeks, discussion forums will also be set up for developers to exchange feedback as code writers sometimes don’t know of the problems, he said. Schroepfer also emphasized that Firefox 4.0 will support the JavaScript 2 language, now under development in part by Mozilla’s CTO Brendan Eich and the ECMA International standards body. The idea behind the JavaScript revamp is to make high-performance Web applications easier to write and assemble for people with less coding expertise, he said: “It’s less about making it possible and more about making it easy.”

News source: InfoWorld

Mozilla Security Update Fixes 7 Vulnerabilities

This week, Mozilla patched seven vulnerabilities with the latest security update, available both with automatic updates and manual download from the company’s website, for Firefox 1.5.0.10 and Firefox 2.0.0.2. The security update was originally slated for a February 21 release but was pushed back to accommodate a fix for the location.hostname vulnerability. The vulnerability allows malicious Web sites to manipulate authentication cookies for third-party sites. “We strongly recommend that all Firefox users upgrade to this latest release. This update resolves the location.hostname vulnerability and other security and stability issues. Thanks to the work of our contributors, we have been able to address these issues quickly in order to minimize the security risk to Firefox users,” said Mike Schroepfer, VP of engineering at Mozilla.

The open-source software maker is already working on another serious bug that Michal Zalewski, a Polish security researcher, described as a memory-corruption issue on his mailing list, Full Disclosure: “I noticed that Firefox is susceptible to a pretty nasty, and apparently easily exploitable memory corruption vulnerability. When a location transition occurs and the structure of a document is modified from within onUnload event handler, freed memory structures are left in inconsistent state, possibly leading to a remote compromise.”