Posted on 05/31/2005 1:21:56 PM PDT by frogjerk
Benjamin Tobias Franz has discovered a weakness in Internet Explorer, which can be exploited by malicious people to cause a DoS (Denial of Service).
The problem is caused due to certain objects not being initialized correctly. This can be exploited to crash a vulnerable browser via some specially crafted JavaScript code called directly when a site has been loaded.
NOTE: It is currently not believed that this issue can be exploited for code execution purposes, but this cannot be ruled out completely.
(Excerpt) Read more at secunia.com ...
You're not giving them a chance, exploits on the net before they even know there's a hole.
Case in point: my machine is currently running 768megs of RAM, and windows is reasonably stable (days between crashes). If I pull out all but one DIMM, suddenly the lock up and crash rate escalates to about once every few days (and happens almost every time I use Google Maps for more than a quick address lookup).
Now I don't know about you, but I don't personally think running on limited memory of only 256megs is "doing something wrong", but it sure bring on the crashes in IE. And on a clean install and patch, no less. Especially when Firefox hasn't given me a single problem doing exactly the same thing.
And God help the IE user who mistypes an URL and finds themselves re-directed to an ad site with malformed shockwave ads. And then pop-upped to death. Sure, mistyping the URL is a mistake, but I don't exactly think it's "doing something wrong". Instead, it's the programmers of IE who have done something wrong by creating such an easily overloadable tangle of software without including enough (if any) user controls to limit what the software is allowed to and disallowed from loading and displaying.
Mine never crashes. Really. If it did, I would definitely NEED something else, since 50+% of my interface with computers is through IE, and I work in this field as a professional.
"crashes and lockups happen often and consistently enough to prove it's a lousy product."
"And then pop-upped to death"
Have you moves to Windows XP SP2? It has a pop-up blocker build into IE.
"crashes and lockups happen often and consistently enough to prove it's a lousy product."
I have never crashed IE. Never. I am a software engineer and have created some significant web applications, and I have never crashed IE. In fact, dealing with all the limitations of the other browsers has been my biggest headache.
"running on limited memory of only 256megs is "doing something wrong", but it sure bring on the crashes in IE."
I can dial in 256MB RAM and I can't get IE to crash. In fact, I have even dialed in 64MB and it doesn't crash.
So what the two of you are saying is that because you have good experiences with IE, then her experiences are thus negated and don't matter? She's mentioned it happens on a clean install, yet I see no help or suggestions--just "mine dones't do that, so you must be wrong."
Never had IE crash.
Ever.
Under any circumstance.
Last time Windows BSOD'd on me was in 1998 - which was when I caught my first (and only) virus.
Pretty much sums up my "problems" with Windows.
All that means is you are a good software engineer. Bully for you.
But you can't seriously claim the same for the many many other wanna-be programmers, flash authors, ad merchants and associated hacks out there who are also writing code and content to be run and displayed on IE.
And browser "limitations" are no measure of software stability. You simply can't claim (unless you're a Microsoft marketing troll - which I doubt) that a site which runs perfectly and stably under Firefox, but crashes explorer, is exactly evidence of the "high level of stability" of explorer. The stability of a browser is not tested by well designed websites, but by bad ones. And it's been my considerable experience that bad websites at worst merely display incorrectly under Firefox, but the browser keeps running. In explorer, they display correctly but crash (often locking up the whole machine). With explorer, there's simply no soft failure mode; it's either crash or nothing.
She already admitted she was fudging the truth claiming it crashed everyday, if you want to give somebody a hard time seems she would be the logical choice.
"All that means is you are a good software engineer. Bully for you."
No, that wasn't the message at all. What it means is that as much as I thrash and trash IE, I haven't found problems with it crashing. Software engineers stress computer systems beyond anything a user will ever do. For me to beat the hell out of IE and have it not crash tends to make me wonder about such claims of IE crashing all the time.
"In explorer, they display correctly but crash (often locking up the whole machine)."
Provide a single link a web site that will crash IE. I'd love to see one.
"She's mentioned it happens on a clean install, yet I see no help or suggestions--just "mine dones't do that, so you must be wrong."
"
Considering the number of clean installs I have tested, I call BS on her story that IE crashes all the time. Hell, I call BS on it crashing much of ever.
Not a virus. Bug in the mouse driver.
The MS Anti Spyware Beta will kill those DSO problems. And it stacks nicely with S & D.
"I am a software engineer and have created some significant web applications, and I have never crashed IE. In fact, dealing with all the limitations of the other browsers has been my biggest headache."
BTTT
"Maybe it isn't MS OSs at all, but the junkware they put on their PCs.
"
I find that to be the case many times. One company was using Novell for the network component, but they continued to blame MS when their systems crashed. Novell was/is buggy, and their client applications, a ton of them, made for a nightmare. Removed Novell and all was well.
A neighbor had crashed Windows 98 daily. I found so much poorly written, junk software they didn't know they had installed. When buying a cheap web cam or DVD device, the Korean or Chinese manufacturer loads all kinds of junk software. Removed said junk and all was well.
I could give a hundred stories like those, but people will balme the OS when they load up their machines with junk drivers and software.
Oh please. Now that's stretching. Sometimes it doesn't crash because I don't use it. Other days, explorer locks up repeatedly. Google maps (particularly the satelite images) lock up explorer consistently. On every windows machine I've used explorer to access that (presumably professionally designed) site, eventually explorer crashes (usually upon trying to close the window). It takes longer on machines with a lot of RAM, but it will eventually fail, which means there's probably yet another undiscovered memory leak somewhere in explorer.
I am always amazed at how sensitive some people are, and the lengths they will go to, when anyone points out weaknesses in their precious microsoft.
I don't need to. That's what this thread is, in fact all about. There are several links already posted on this very thread. Go look.
"when anyone points out weaknesses in their precious microsoft.
"
I use google maps daily and have had no problems. I bet this is user error. Google takes a second or two to respond and you jump around saying IE is "locked up!"
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