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'Lower Rights' IE 7.0 Coming

blacktop writes "eWeek has official confirmation from a Microsoft vice president that the upcoming Internet Explorer 7.0 browser upgrade will ship with reduced privilege mode turned on by default to help thwart browser-based attacks. In addition to anti-phishing and anti-spoofing features, IE 7.0 will add support for IDN (International Domain Names), built-in RSS and seamless search that will include choices of search providers."

41 of 378 comments (clear)

  1. So basically ... by DeVryGuy23 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...just some of the key features of Firefox and Safari?

    1. Re:So basically ... by Dogers · · Score: 4, Informative

      Without the CSS support.

      Marvellous!

      --
      I am a viral sig. Please copy me and help me spread. Thank you.
    2. Re:So basically ... by evilbessie · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Yes, that's is what they are doing but an interesting thing about the article
      "Nine months ago, we started hearing from partners like Dell that spyware was a major issue. Our own data from [Dr Watson] crash reports was telling us that 30 percent of all machines had some form of spyware. It reached a point where we had to do something."
      So yes they implement security but only when someone else points out that over 25% of all computers are infected with malware. Obviously this new Security concious microsoft takes some time to believe thaty they may be wrong... enjoy
    3. Re:So basically ... by Kick+the+Donkey · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You want an honest answer to that question? I'd say somewhere around 8-10%. 30%? Too little, too late.

      --
      /. is a bunch of nerds at a million typewriters. It's not a political conspiracy determined to undermine your beliefs.
    4. Re:So basically ... by dioscaido · · Score: 4, Insightful

      ...just some of the key features of Firefox and Safari?

      What are you talking about? When you run Firefox under an Administrator account, it runs as an Administrator. In linux if you run Firefox as root, it runs as root. Neither provide any sort of explicit protection against this environment. Or am I missing something here? If you run your windows desktop account as a limited user (not an Administrator), then IE6/5/4 and all other browsers on the market today run as a least priviledged process.

    5. Re:So basically ... by klubar · · Score: 4, Insightful

      A better question is what percentage of home/small business/clueless corporate users don't have automatic update turned on. (Yes, auto update has broken a few, relatively rare programs. But if 100% of users allowed auto-update to do its stuff we'd have many fewer infected machines.)

    6. Re:So basically ... by JebusIsLord · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Welcome to slashdot. MS has 3 choices, and they are damned any which way they go:
      a) They can not do anything, and get blamed for not keeping up.
      b) They can catch up, and get blamed for just doing stuff everyone else already does.
      c) They can "innovate" ahead of the others, and really piss everyone off.

      --
      Jeremy
  2. They're adding IDN support NOW??? by bgarcia · · Score: 5, Funny
    IE 7.0 will add support for IDN (International Domain Names)
    Oh, goodie!

    I was wondering when IE would be able to support the Unicode URL spoofing attacks!

    --
    I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.
  3. WHAT?? by to_kallon · · Score: 3, Informative

    "We've re-architected it to defend against exploits," Mangione said

    architect IS NOT a verb!!
    great laugh to start the day though.

    --


    The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.
    -Oscar Wilde
    1. Re:WHAT?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      architect IS NOT a verb!

      It's a perfectly cromulent word.

    2. Re:WHAT?? by Dorothy+86 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, but verbing nouns weirds the language.

    3. Re:WHAT?? by Ancil · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What's with the language curmudgeon? Words get verbed all the time. There's nothing wrong with it; it's been happening for at least as long as people have been speaking English.

      Consider these nouns which got verbed (or perhaps they're verbs which got nouned?):

      Walk, run, shop, sleep, look, smell, call, visit, drive, kill, drink....

      Are all of these bad as well?

  4. Appropriate for the largest audience by wyoung76 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    IMO, Microsoft has made the correct decision in announcing this change in IE. The main audience is the so-called "mom & pop" audience which haven't the faintest idea of how to do things, and just want things to work. They also tend to get hit with more problems which the typical /. crowd probably ends up having to fix.

    Microsoft may be a bit slow to get there, but they'll get there in the end.

    1. Re:Appropriate for the largest audience by Mithrandir86 · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Good to see that competition from Mozilla's Firefox is inspiring Microsoft to improve IE.

      Regardless of who wins in the battle of open-closed ideologies, the ultimate winner shall be the consumer. Which is exactly how it should be.

    2. Re:Appropriate for the largest audience by matth · · Score: 4, Insightful

      My only thought is... in Server 2003 they do this (I think) by default and it's annoying as all get out... to the point of being unable to really browse the web without security boxes popping up all over the place. Isn't there a way to do it without being intrusive on the user? This is just going to force the user to increase the security level.

    3. Re:Appropriate for the largest audience by chrome · · Score: 4, Insightful

      In my experience, users who decide to lower the security, overcompensate when doing so. Instead of setting the security to what they need it at, they set it to the "Bend over and rape me" setting.

      Microsoft: Stop writing buggy software with "accidental" hooks that let you install device drivers from a god-damn active X control! THEN you won't need crutches like "Security levels".

      I agree with the parent 100%: this won't be effective.

    4. Re:Appropriate for the largest audience by Mithrandir86 · · Score: 5, Funny
      Crap, I forgot about posting against the /. articles of faith and got modded a troll.

      Just a second.

      Greedy M$ is making another foolish move. Hopefully they'll be bankrupt soon. All corporations are inherently evil. Linux forever!

      Was that better?

  5. New Features? by Jackdaw+Rookery · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So what will Microsoft be offering in IE7 that is new, and not just a take on Mozilla/Firefox/Opera?

    It seems to me that Microsoft is only playing catch up, has invention died over in Redmond?

    Why would people move back to IE even after the release of IE7? I'm guessing they won't and this is for those that won't or can't move from IE.

    1. Re:New Features? by Gorath99 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So what will Microsoft be offering in IE7 that is new, and not just a take on Mozilla/Firefox/Opera?

      It seems to me that Microsoft is only playing catch up, has invention died over in Redmond?


      To be fair, Firefox has taken many (most?) of its features from other browsers as well.

      Let MS copy what they want. If IE improves, so much the better. Firefox et al will have a reason to find new ways to improve and I'll have a better browser when I'm stuck on a Windows box at work/school/whatever.

    2. Re:New Features? by alvinrod · · Score: 3, Informative
      It seems to me that Microsoft is only playing catch up, has invention died over in Redmond?

      Microsoft has largely been playing catchup throughout its entire existance. Before there was ever Windows, there was Apple's OS. Before there was IE, Netscape was king of the browser world. Spam Blocking and Security? Been around for a long time before Microsoft built it in to their products. Almost everywhere you look, Microsoft is trying to make up lost ground. Almost any inovation in computing has been "borrowed" by Microsoft, not created.

      Microsoft made a good product that caught on like wildfire and made computers more accessible to people who weren't able to understand the complexities of computers. Because they have such a large customer base, they can get away with releasing inferior products when it's the only product available.

      I don't mean to sound like I'm trying to start a flame war, but when Microsoft finally gets their product right, and the competition has been doing it for a year or more, it gets under my skin a little bit. Why not just get it right from the start or at least fix more along the way.

  6. Multiple search engines! by grasshoppa · · Score: 5, Funny

    You can use msn! Or, maybe you'd prefer msn!

    Or, if those two options don't suit you, you can use MSN!

    --
    Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
  7. One of these days... by the+linux+geek · · Score: 4, Insightful

    People will notice that all of MS's "New Features" have been in OSS for years.

  8. Possible MS logic? by B5_geek · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hmm let me guess, this 'less-priviledged' IE "user" will be unable to install 3d party apps & addons (let's call them "plug-ins").

    Idiot #1: I want to install these smile-themes and weather app, but IE won't let me. It says that these "plug-ins" are unsafe and operate at a higher priviledge level. I don't know what that means BUT I WANT MY SMILES! ...... you guys know the rest of the story.

    --
    "The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
  9. Is it worth the switch? by Dancin_Santa · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I remember about 6 or 7 years ago when I was switching from Netscape 3 to IE 4 that there was a huge argument over whether Netscape 4 or IE 4 was the better product. The step up from versions 3 was significant.

    Lately, having switched to Firefox to avoid rampant security issues, I feel fairly comfortable with this browser. There are some things that I wish were better like better Googlebar and better plug-in handling, but am pretty happy with it.

    So with IE7, what's the draw? What features will it have that will encourage me to jump ship again? The feature list doesn't impress me as much as the jump from Netscape 3 to IE 4 did. And security is not an issue with Firefox, so that's not a good enough reason.

    I guess I'll just have to download the mandatory Critical Update and try out the browser for myself.

    1. Re:Is it worth the switch? by Mr_Silver · · Score: 3, Insightful
      So with IE7, what's the draw? What features will it have that will encourage me to jump ship again? The feature list doesn't impress me as much as the jump from Netscape 3 to IE 4 did.

      I don't believe that Microsoft are intending IE 7 to draw people from Firefox, but rather encourage users not to consider switching. Remember, they still have 90%+ of the market share so getting back those 10% isn't going to be a priority. However keeping the 90% is.

      And security is not an issue with Firefox, so that's not a good enough reason.

      Funny, I've been seeing rather a lot of security related alerts regarding Firefox recently. Granted it's not as wideopen as IE - but saying that security isn't an issue is a tad off the mark.

      --
      Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
    2. Re:Is it worth the switch? by Kjella · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So with IE7, what's the draw? What features will it have that will encourage me to jump ship again?

      Nothing. In short, IE7 is there to 1) stop people from installing a 3rd party browser and 2) when you get a new machine with IE7 installed, be too lazy to install a 3rd party browser again.

      It is quite simple really, let Firefox/Opera do all the R&D and find out what the "must-haves" are and what is fluff, then tag along. Having a Windows monopoly is the ultimate way to "unconvert" people. If people had to actively choose to install IE over other browsers, things would be different. But for each time, you have to actively do something NOT to use IE. From there it is all about laziness.

      Kjella

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  10. Interesting by James_Duncan8181 · · Score: 3, Interesting
    So Microsoft are finally properly going at a least-rights solution, but on a per app basis? This is quite a concession, as it shows that the MS campaign to have people not run as admin is not really working at all in the real world. There are still far, far too many shops who are used to coding for 9x to make multiuser practical, even among coders who should know better (I'm looking at you EA/Medal of Honor!).

    The other way that this will be fun is watching all of the *really* bad ISVs who assume that IE is a complete solution for their apps and will of course be able to alter the system config when they use it as a component.

    And you thought SP2 broke things? *laughs evily*

    --
    "To any truly impartial person, it would be obvious that I am right."
  11. Slow ears by KiloByte · · Score: 5, Funny

    From TFA: "Nine months ago, we started hearing from partners like Dell that spyware was a major issue."

    Hmm, let's see. (5 years-9 months) times the speed of sound... this means that Dell's headquarters are 46 million kilometers from Redmond.

    --
    The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
    1. Re:Slow ears by edunbar93 · · Score: 3, Funny

      this means that Dell's headquarters are 46 million kilometers from Redmond.

      I always knew that Redmond was on another planet...

      --
      "No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
  12. Prolonged?! by LegendOfLink · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Too little, too late, perhaps? Why has it taken Microsoft over 5 years (and counting) to release an upgraded version of IE? Oh well, I want to thank Microsoft, because the only browser I used on my WinXP boxes was IE...then FireFox came out.

    Yes, I admit it, I used to be an IE user...but now, I will never go back. For once when you see the great bird that showers fire and thunder at the masses, then you know that the forces of Mammon will never succeed at world domination.

    about:mozilla

  13. no no no by hsmith · · Score: 4, Funny

    when you type in "google" Clippy pops up and asks you "It looks like you want to do a search, we will take you to a far superior search engine" and will redirect you

  14. if it comes with flash and such too by Lord+Bitman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If IE came pre-loaded with the most popular plugins (Flash, Quicktime), so that the majority of people would have no reason to ever turn off the reduced privledge mode, as opposed to turning it off several times soon after they have gotten their initial installation, it may work. If people are immediately conditioned that turning off reduced privledge mode is something that you need to do in order to get your browser to work right, then this will do nothing.

    Of course, simply never allowing write-access to anything but /cookies-and-bookmarks on a kernel-level might help too

    --
    -- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
  15. Will only work if ActiveX is disabled by default by Motherfucking+Shit · · Score: 4, Interesting
    From TFA,
    The enhancements will build on the Security Zones feature in current versions of IE that allows customers to prevent untrusted Web sites from invoking ActiveX controls.
    Sounds to me like ActiveX will still be enabled by default, they're just going to improve on the ability to block it on a per-domain basis instead of a per-zone basis. This isn't enough. IMO, ActiveX is the biggest (non-bug) avenue by which users become infected with all sorts of shit. It needs to be outright disabled out of the box if IE is going to get serious about security.

    The conundrum is that so many sites now require ActiveX that if IE were to ship with it disabled, Joe Sixpack's favorite websites wouldn't work.
    --
    "BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
  16. Lower Rights For Everyone! by buckhead_buddy · · Score: 3, Funny

    Recently, Microsoft already lowered the rights of gays and lesbians by dropping support for a major state anti-discrimination bill. Based on that wildly popular success (with right wingers at least) we'll be dropping the rights for everyone in the next release of Internet Explorer; trust us, we know what's good for you. And for those anxious about what the future holds, worry no more; coming with Longhorn, we'll offer new digital rights management features. Just remember, all your rights are belong to us.

  17. Ok... by http101 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Who the hell titles these articles? Lower rights and Lower permissions mean completely different things...

    If MS is adding support for IDN, I'm really going to stick with Mozilla. Does anyone remember the IDN spoofing exploit from Firefox on February 7, 2005? http://secunia.com/multiple_browsers_idn_spoofing_ test/

    Let's hope MS caps this hole before it happens. Unfortunately, MS has a reputation for adding bugs along with new features.

    --
    -- Game Developers: Stop porting badly-textured games from crappy console systems!
  18. Re:Will only work if ActiveX is disabled by defaul by masklinn · · Score: 4, Insightful
    The ideal solution would be to just create two seperate binaries -- IE-Internet and IE-Local, and make damn sure that it's virtually impossible to break the sandbox in IE-Internet.
    Fuck that, fully separate Internet Explorer as a web browser and Explorer as a local computer browser, they should never have been merged in the first place. No sandbox, just two completely different programs that don't share any damn blasted thing they could *not share*, and not a single hook from the web browser to the innards of the computer.
    --
    "The way we can tell it's C# instead of Haskell is because it's nine lines instead of two." -- wadler
  19. 30%, Try 80% by blazerw11 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here are just a few references pointing out the real percentage of computers infected with spyware:
    80%
    8 out of 10
    88%
    Or, just search it.
    So, 5 years to admit to the problem as it was 3-ish years ago.

    --
    A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices. -- William James
  20. Re:Re-architected it? by PiMuNu · · Score: 3, Informative

    Had to have been ;-)

  21. It's customary to identify source, even in humour by Petersko · · Score: 4, Informative

    Yep, it's funny. But it's Bill Watterson. Give credit where credit is due.

  22. Re:Will only work if ActiveX is disabled by defaul by magickalhack · · Score: 4, Insightful

    By extension, you should have a separate computer that is connected to the internet with no hooks whatsoever to the computer you use to run your tax form preparation program, write your letters, balance your checkbook, etc. Oh, what's that? You want to e-file? You want to send e-mail? You want to bank online?

    Integration may be scary, but it isn't something you should intellectially shy away from. Convenience and security have always been at odds, and I don't see that changing any time soon. The balance beteween them isn't a zero-sum-game, however, and the solution, IMO, isn't to discard all notions of integrated solutions, even if they are less secure in the short term. We need to keep moving forward, not idolize some rose-colored past that never existed.

    --
    This Sig Kills Fascists
  23. Search choice? by RichM · · Score: 4, Funny

    "...and seamless search that will include choices of search providers."

    MSN.com
    MSN.co.uk
    MSN.co.fr
    MSN.co.de
    MSN.co.kr
    MSN.co.ie
    MSN.co.jp
    and so on...