IE Vulnerable to Cross-Browser Spyware Attack

Posted by timothy on Monday March 14, 2005 @07:44AM from the if-you-must-run-windows-remove-ie dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Register reports that Firefox can be used to infect IE on Windows. By visiting a malicious site with Firefox, a user can infect their install of Internet Explorer. Other alternative browers may expose the same vulnerability. The article quotes the CTO of ScanSafe as saying that '[j]ust switching away from IE does not give adequate projection. Now that Firefox and other alternative browsers have a toehold in the market the hacking community will get busy exploiting the vulnerabilities that exist in any complex browser.'" VitalSecurity's report points out that this vulnerability can (only) affect Windows users who use Sun's Java Runtime Environment.

3 of 619 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

This can't be by KinkifyTheNation · 2005-03-14 07:47 · Score: 0, Redundant

Internet Explorer... vulnerable?
Not a browser issue... by Mad+Merlin · 2005-03-14 07:55 · Score: 0, Redundant

As the summary and the articles say, this isn't a browser issue, it is a Java issue, the applet exploits a hole in the JRE and attacks IE, any browser with Java support will be vulnerable. More interesting though... has anybody tried this on Linux? I would, but I'm not currently at home.

--
Game! - Where the stick is mightier than the sword!
Learn how to say no. by Bl4ckM4gic · 2005-03-14 09:00 · Score: 1, Redundant

Really, this is more an exploit of user ignorance than anything.