Slashdot Mirror
The Web's 20 Worst Security Flaws
XsynackX writes "The SANS Institute released its Top-20 list of the biggest vulnerabilities on the web today. The SANS Top 20 Internet Security Vulnerabilities list is actually a compilation of two lists--the top 10 Windows vulnerabilities and the top 10 Unix vulnerabilities. The list goes into almost more detail than any one person could ever take in on individual security flaws, but provides a wealth of knowledge for those who like to get in-depth. Interestingly enough, the browser section of the Windows vulnerabilities lists everyone's favorite browser Internet Explorer with 15 flaws and Mozilla with only 7."
Doesn't everyone that reads /. know that MS IE is a gaping security vulnerability by now. Do we *really* need to keep harping on it like a bunch of smug self-righteous motherfuckers?
I've always said that spyware was caused due to Internet Explorer being so popular.... If firefox keeps the rate of growth its doing I don't think it will be that long into we see spy/malware targeting Firefox as well....
Loading Please Wait....
Interestingly enough, the browser section of the Windows vulnerabilities lists everyone's favorite browser Internet Explorer with 15 flaws and Mozilla with only 7.
Don't think I'm trolling but this is like saying the USA has 27,000 nuclear weapons whereas Russia has only 13,000.
Banu
Because Microsoft wants to be in EVERY game, win or lose. They started out as an OS company, then later became an Word processing, database, browser making, video game company. M$ management is the classic "I want that Feature, because I said so" type.
Top Vulnerabilities to UNIX Systems
1. A fool with root access.
I think the stats speak for themselves in which is more secure. If Win boxes can take such a phenomenal market share and still only have the same number of 'top' vulnerabilities, that's putting it 19 times more secure. From the summary:
"The SANS Top 20 Internet Security Vulnerabilities list is actually a compilation of two lists--the top 10 Windows vulnerabilities and the top 10 Unix vulnerabilities."
The two lists are not competeting with each other, it is simply the top 10 win vulns, and the top 10 unix vulns, its not a top 20 list where there happen to be 10 vulnerabilities of each OS.
She's built like a steak house, but she handles like a bistro....
If not ...
The article separately lists the top 10 Windows and top 10 Unix vulnerabilities. In this case, Top 10 plus Top 10 does not necessarily equal Top 20.
Sort of like if you considered the Top 10 fastest race cars at a Nascar race and the Top 10 fastest race cars at a soapbox derby race - the resulting list wouldn't be the Top 20 fastest race cars.
I thought they started out as a language company.
Shows what I know.
Writers imply. Readers infer.
Remember this: if the attackers have physical access to the machine, there is almost no security to speak of. You may be able to limit access to one machine at a time (thus preventing intranet assualts), but once an attacker is sitting at the computer in question, there is very little that they cannot do. This is true for both windows and linux. Even password theft is possible on Linux, given the right amount of time.
Certainly some attacks take longer, but in general, if they have your machine, its too late for security!
"We don't know what we are doing, but we are doing it very carefully,..." Wherry, R.J. Personnel Psychology (1995)
Several reasons:
1. They wove IE into the OS for political reasons, and it's probably impractical to extract it.
2. XUL is threatening what Netscape once threatened, namely getting rid of the applications barrier to entry that preserves the OS monopoly.
3. MS can't be perceived as ever having lost. The image of the invincible monolith must be preserved.
However, Firefox's development model is inherently better than IE's with regards to security, since the status of these vulnerabilities is known to all and they are fixed much more quickly
Unfortunately, not all Firefox vulnerabilities are known to all, and nor are they fixed "quickly".
In cases where the bug is made public, this is true. For cases where they sweep the bug in the rug and keep it from showing publicly in the bug database while they argue amongst themselves if they're really going to fix it, vulnerabilities have been left in the code for years.
This thread is veering way off topic, and I realize this, but there are a couple of important issues here that need to be addressed. (Please don't mod me down.
1) Firefox is about as secure and obscure as any of the less. There are a multitude of different browsers out there now, and undeniably companies like Espial and Opera have lost a lot of ground to the popularity of Firefox. Hackers have the implicit goal of doing something because they can. Exploiting holes in a piece of software starts as a "I will see if I can do this" and may eventually turn into a "Let's see who I can #$%^ over" plan. It varies. If Firefox had the most number of seats it could still be a target.
2) MS is a business, and businesses try to make wads of cash anywhere they can. Every MS success technical success also has a large number of accompanying failures. Businesses have focus changes; some are successful and some are not. The free market (voting with dollars) decides who will be around.
Cases in point:
a) Sun started losing ground in the server market, so they started looking to Java as their next savior.
b) SGI started losing ground the in the graphics workstation market and got behind OpenGL as a standard.
c) Be, Inc changed focus from their operating system to Information Appliances and it wound them up filing for bankruptcy.
d) Apple gave up on the Pippin and the Newton, but
they started doing iPods because they wanted to have a me-too with the Rios and Creative Nomads.
e) Sony for walked right in and created its own games console when Nintendo and Sega were making cash hand over fist. It paid off for them.
f) Many companies created Doom knockoffs in the 90s and everyone and their brother now are trying to make silly bowling games for cell phones. Businesses are copycats. If they see success in an area, it is much easier to imitate (and litigate) than to innovate.
The point behind all of these stories is that you have to diversify and change directions in order to stay afloat in business; With or without any implied innovation. MS, as well as any big business has a lot of potential to stagnate, and diversifying markets is not a bad idea. MS is just one target of stagnation out of many.
But the Criminal Monopoly simply don't care either about other people's security, or about their browser, which was only intended to kill Netscape. As that has been more or less accomplished, they are simply not interested any more. What is more, in common with other Monopoly products, the underlying codebase has probably become such a mess that it would be better to throw it away and start again, but the paranoid megalomaniac Bill would have too many tantrums if someone was brave enough to tell him the truth.