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Firefox Exploit Adds Fuel to Browser Security Feud

Posted by Zonk on from the patch-early-patch-often dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Washingtonpost.com is reporting that a fairly nasty exploit has been released for a security hole that Firefox patched just yesterday. This is sure to add fuel to the ongoing heated debate over whether Mozilla is any safer the Internet Explorer." From the article: "This is not your run-of-the-mill proof of concept exploit code. It appears to be quite comprehensive, and would allow any attacker to use it with only slight modifications. According to the advisory, the code is designed to be embedded in a Web site so that anyone computer visiting the evil site with Firefox or Netscape would open up a line of communication with another Internet address of the attacker's choice, effectively letting the bad guys control the victim computer from afar."

6 of 510 comments (clear)

  1. Woo! Finally! by daniil · · Score: 5, Funny

    Firefox is finally catching up with the market leader! Woo!

    --
    Man is a slave because freedom is difficult, whereas slavery is easy.
  2. Good news! by Otter · · Score: 5, Funny
    On the plus side, the exploit is released under the GPL. This just goes to show the superiority of open-source over proprietary exploits!

    Also on the plus side, the Washington Post link crashes my IE, so I can't even read the anti-Firefox news. Score another for Mozilla!.

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    What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
  3. Commence the Microsoft conspiracy theories... by slashdotnickname · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...because we all know that no self-respecting hacker would attack a friend of open-source such as FireFox. These exploit discoveries are being secretly funded by Microsoft!

  4. Re:Question by tktk · · Score: 5, Funny
    Does the Washington Post, or any other mainstream media outlet, publish a story whenever an exploit is released in the wild for Internet Explorer?

    No... because it's hideously expensive to print 10lb newspapers every day.

  5. Screw it...I'm moving to Lynx! by PenguinBoyDave · · Score: 5, Funny

    Let's see them attack my text-based browser!

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    I'm not a troll, but I play one on Slashdot.
  6. Well that tears it! by dpilot · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm going to rip Linux out of all my boxes, install WinXP SP2, and do all of my web surfing on IE with ActiveX enabled, just to be safe!

    --
    The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.