Slashdot Mirror
Controversy Surrounds Huge IE Hole
Suchetha wrote in with a Wired News bit talking about
security hole
in IE that allows malicious web pages to reformat a hard drive. The Wired
talks
more about bugtrack's handling of the whole thing, and how it essentially posted working
code for the exploit. Was it irresponsible or not?
but...(you knew the "but" was coming, right?)
Is it really any more irresponsible than running IE in the first place? How many more of these browser exploits have to happen? A part of me almost hopes someone does exploit this and do nasty things with it JUST SO PEOPLE WON'T BE DEPENDANT ON IE ANYMORE. Friends don't let friends use Internet Explorer.
I think the word needs to be spread: Anyone who uses IE isn't an innocent bystander, but someone who knowingly uses a defective and dangerous product. IE Users are no better than people who own Ford Explorers and kept the old Firestones because they don't want to go through the trouble to get them changed.
So, all you other geeks out there, when you're visiting family over the upcoming holidays and they inevitably ask you to fix something on their computer, install Mozilla (or Opera, or even Netscape) and set it as the default browser. When they ask why, tell them it's because IE is a dangerous and defective product.
Since when have Mozilla and pals been perfect?
All these people ranting about "It's your own fault - using sofware you know is defective..." - I'm sorry, but I don't know of any software that I know to have no defects.
At least IE gets regular fixes through auto-update. Mozilla et al don't tend to do that and also don't tend to *work* as well as IE for most browsing needs. It it's a choice between two bits of software, neither of which I know to be secure, I might as well choose the one which does most other things better.
The fix is located here and here. I've already "patched"...