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Dept. of Homeland Security Says to Stop Using IE
LWATCDR writes "I have been saying this for a long time but now it is offical. From Yahoo News:
'The Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team touched off a storm this week when it recommended for security reasons using browsers other than Microsoft's Internet Explorer.'" In related news, rocketjam writes "According to Wired, the widespread Internet Explorer security exploit last week and CERT's subsequent recommendation that IE users should consider switching to another browser has resulted in a large spike in downloads of the Mozilla Organization's Mozilla and Firefox web browsers."
Firefox, you need to do yourself a favor. Flawless pop-up blocking, the beauty of tabbed browsing...real standards implementation...the list goes on and on. Now, if only Windows would be declared a national security risk...
Don't be a looter...and yes, I know that it's spelled with an "A" instead of an "E".
That was CERT's announcement, this is actually the Department of Homeland Security making this recoomendation. 2 different orginizations, same recommendation.
For those considering installing Firefox on Win2k PCs they don't have 'administrator' accounts on, I can report that it installs and works perfectly well from a 'power user' account. Perfect for those considering an installation on a work PC.
You should probably find out if IE uses any work-related proxy-server and change that setting manually in Firefox once the install is complete.
Happy browsing!
Imposing Libertarian views on everyone online since 1992.
Repeat after me: Global Class Action Lawsuit against Microsoft. Bunch of bumbling fubars. And that ain't the only whole they haven't plugged in months...
Microsoft released a fix for this issue today. Basically it disables the ADODB.Stream object. However, it requires a regedit to implement. I imagine a hotfix is forthcomming. Still, Firefox and Mozilla don't suck at all, so people should at least use this as an excuse to give them a try IMO.
There is nothing inherently safe about liberty. That's why so many people died protecting it.
Sorry, Steve Jobs already beat BillyGoat Gates to the punch.
I hate Grammar Nazi's
After making the switch to Mozilla Firefox and using it for two days, I'm hooked. I downloaded the All-in-One Gestures extension, and I can't for the life of me figure out how I ever lived without it. It's a whole new paradigm in browsing. This is another milestone in the MS exodus towards open source and Linux. Disclaimer: I do not work for Mozilla... just a satisfied user.
When I become an Evil Overlord: My ventilation ducts will be too small to crawl through.
"In the meantime, we have provided customers with prescriptive guidance to help mitigate these issues."
Ummm... I don't think so.... here is a link to the US-CERT Vulnerability Note VU#713878 which (I think) is where this all starts. Go right to the bottom (OK, this is slashdot, so I'll cut-and-paste)
Use a different web browser
There are a number of significant vulnerabilities in technologies relating to the IE domain/zone security model, the DHTML object model, MIME type determination, and ActiveX. It is possible to reduce exposure to these vulnerabilities by using a different web browser, especially when browsing untrusted sites. Such a decision may, however, reduce the functionality of sites that require IE-specific features such as DHTML, VBScript, and ActiveX. Note that using a different web browser will not remove IE from a Windows system, and other programs may invoke IE, the WebBrowser ActiveX control, or the HTML rendering engine (MSHTML).
The way I read that last sentence, CERT say you are not safe unless you get rid of the IE6 functionality.
You're right, but remember that they cannot run anything unless they have a brilliant and ingenious way to transform jpegs and boldface text into an infection.
NO ACTIVE X. That means no sneaky little programs in your system.
The open source movement is well on top of issues like this... always have been.
Also, politically speaking, the open sourcers and black hats are cousins on different sides of a moral question. Virus writers and spyware jockeys don't go out and try to attack open source. They know what they are up against. They prey on the weak.
Remember, Open Source is dragging Microsoft down on a mayonnaise sandwich budget. They know who not to mess with.
Now if we could only get Homeland Security to start talking about OUTLOOK EXPRESS, then I would dance a jig.
Here's my piece I did on the topic about a week before the CERT announcement:
http://www.dmiessler.com/reading/ie.html
dmiessler.com -- grep understanding knowledge
Alternative browsers such as Mozilla or Netscape may not protect users, the agency warned, if those browsers invoke ActiveX control or HTML rendering engines
Did anyone RTFM from the Yahoo link. It says at the very bottom that Mozilla is vulnerable too. I use Mozilla myself but it appears that the real culpret is ActiveX which you can install on Mozilla. I don't think this plug in will work on platforms other than windows so it's really a platform issue.
a link (http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/323070) to the US-CERT pub recommendation. It is also interesting to note that the suggestion to "use a different web broswer" is the last offered (see section III. Solution).
Same here in the Army. But you are expecting a LOT if you think that the military will change the web browser overnight.
First a committee/team has to be put together to verify the recommendation not to use IE. Then an alternative will have to be selected. This means another committee/team will have to determine what the alternatives are. Once the alternative web browsers are identified, they will have to be tested to make sure that they are secure and compatible they are. This testing can very depending on how indepth they go and how soon they realize that a large number of military web sites are IE only!! Once a replacement browser is selected, a Plan of Action has to be determined to figure out how the new web browser will be installed and how the completed installation is reported back up the chain of command. Once all of this has been completed, it will then be briefed to the head shed at the Pentagon who will then make some modifications before giving an order that all computers have a new web browser installed.
This doesn't take into account any turf battles that may come up during this process, fixing all of the IE only military web sites, complaints and stubborn refusal from users (IE will have to be completely removed otherwise people will still use it), all of the modifications to the Plan of Action as it goes down the chain of command, the several weeks it will take for each DOIM and unit to figure out how they are going to implement the Plan of Action, DoD civilians.....
It should take the military a few months to install a new web browser.....
Army of One!
http://johnkerry.com was running Apache on Linux when last queried at 26-Jun-2004 10:33:54 GMT
http://georgewbush.com was running Microsoft-IIS on Windows 2000 when last queried at 25-Jun-2004 13:05:27 GMT
Etiquette is etiquette. He kills his mother but he can't wear grey trousers.
The Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team touched off a storm this week when it recommended for security reasons using browsers other than Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
CERT gave the warning on June 10 . BBC reported this on June 14 .
http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/323070 says in boldface "Use a different web browser".
I don't think the media misreported that.