Posted on 04/28/2014 1:52:29 PM PDT by dayglored
In a rare move that highlights the severity of the security hole in one of the Web's most popular browsers, the Homeland Security Department's Computer Emergency Readiness Team says to stop using Internet Explorer until Microsoft can fix it.
Security firm FireEye said that it is currently being used to attack financial and defense organizations in the US via Internet Explorer 9, 10, and 11. Those versions of the browser run on Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8, although the exploit is present in Internet Explorer 6 and above.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnet.com ...
'Thought it was a parody piece .....
Seriously, Pale Moon fits the bill just fine, w/o the political baggage.
IE has been a virus magnet for years. You could stop have the malware out there just by getting rid of IE and Outlook
HA! and here the Air Force is still stuck on IE8. Imagine the problems they could be having right now.
Not if you people IE years ago when it was realized to be a piece of garbage.
For what it’s worth, my only use of IE in the last 20 years has been to download an alternate browser, to run Updates, and to access MSDN downloads where it’s required.
I’ve hated IE from the start. Always been a Netscape/Firefox fan, myself.
Yeah. It frosts my pumpkin that every time I set up a Windows box I have to use IE to download Firefox. Then I feel like a I need a shower.
Just installed Pale Moon for 64bit linux. A bit of directory movement moved my FF profile, extensions and plugins right into Pale Moon. Looks like a great browser. I’m sold. Bye Bye FF and your BoD.
Actually it’s possible to download Firefox using the command line FTP client...
You could stop have the malware out there just by getting rid of IE and Outlook
I never used outlook, dumped IE long ago, and recently figured out that flashplayer was just mucking things up, so I killed that too.
Unfortunately it's not that simple. IE is used for rendering any HTML content on a Windows machine. The kernel of IE is used in any window you open to browse your computer, for instance.
Note that this vulnerability is an exploit that can be leveraged if you go to a vulnerable site. Do not open any strange emails or click on pop-up windows, and you'll generally be okay. Your best bet would be to use a browser that utilizes its own execution environment such as Firefox or Chrome, as you can be assured that neither one of them is using Windows kernel hooks to render HTML content.
FWIW, disabling Flash will not fix this issue. It's a code exploit in the IE framework, not an extension vulnerability.
That is simply not true.
There is a really simple way to test this. Go to the Acid Test site with Firefox, Chrome, and IE. You'll notice they all handle the tests differently. All microsoft programs may well use the IE rendering engine for displaying HTML, but other programs do not. You can get a plugin for FF that will let it use IE, but by default it does not.
You made my point for me right there. Read the rest of my post:
Your best bet would be to use a browser that utilizes its own execution environment such as Firefox or Chrome, as you can be assured that neither one of them is using Windows kernel hooks to render HTML content.
You assume that I meant HTML content insomuch as web browsing. Perhaps I wasn't clear, but I'm not wrong. Any HTML content outside of a browser, in a Windows environment, is rendered by the IE engine. If you're talking about browsing the web with an actual browser program, then your results will vary.
Ya. would help.
Someone else was making the assertions that all windows programs use IE on the other thread. Just finished my first cup o joe. Reading comprehension is bound to improve.
True. But I’ve installed my last MS OS. So it’s a moot point.
Consider yourself spoofed. LOL ... at you comment. So you spoofed me too.
yes, the Fried Tomato Pastry is good for browsing also.
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