Web browser security holes in abundance: IE, Firefox, Chrome
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Mozilla warned users of its Firefox 3.5 web browser yesterday that a security flaw in the browser's Just-in-time (JIT) JavaScript compiler leaves users vulnerable to browse-and-get-owned attacks by visiting malicious websites, the latest in a series of browser security flaws disclosed by developers.
Mozilla said on its security blog that developers will issue a security update "as soon as the fix is completed and tested." Users are urged to disable JIT in the JavaScript engine or by running Firefox in Safe Mode.
The announcement came on the same day that Microsoft issued security patches for two critical security vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer, which had been exploited by hackers in the wild. Microsoft also warned Monday of another IE vulnerability that remains unpatched.
Security researcher Robert "RSnake" Hansen, CEO of SecTheory, revealed on his blog last week that Google Chrome has a security bug that could allow a hacker to tinker with the view-source: directive.
Hansen told InformationWeek that the Chrome flaw isn't an "earth-shattering bug," but Chrome is built with WebKit, the open source browser layout engine used by Chrome and Apple's Safari, "and WebKit is not necessarily secure."
Apple issued security patches last week for two WebKit flaws in Safari 4.0.2.
Bradley Anstis of Marshal8e6 observed in a security report this week that web browsers are "categorically one of the most dangerous applications on a user's computer."
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