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Microsoft Urges Windows Users To Shun Safari
benjymouse writes "The Register has picked up on a recent Microsoft security bulletin which urges Windows users to 'restrict use of Safari as a web browser until an appropriate update is available from Microsoft and/or Apple.' This controversy comes after Apple has officially refused to promise to do anything about the carpet bombing vulnerability in the Safari browser. Essentially, Apple does not see unsolicited downloads of hundreds or even thousands of executable files to users' desktops as being a security problem." Now while downloading a hundred files to your desktop won't automatically execute them, Microsoft's position is that a secondary attack could execute them for you.
And that's no wonder. Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were cut with the same scissors. Back in the 80's, while Billy kept stealing whatever idea he stumbled upon, Steve Jobs only thought of becoming more powerful and promote a competitive environment inside Apple, even if that destroyed the moral of his employees.
Please do yourselves a favor and watch Pirates of Silicon Valley. It's an enlightening movie. And yes, Steve did even worse things, but they're too shocking to be mentioned in public.
It doesn't take hundreds of files. It takes one file.
According to Nate McFeters, Microsoft has a working "one click and the bad guy gets code running on your machine" exploit.
Why even bother with executing them? I can imagine a whole host of marketing people thinking this is a great way to obtain prime advertisement real-estate.
Getting an icon on a users desktop is something some companies pay a lot of money for. In fact, the ability to spam any download folder is probably something they regard as worthwhile.
"Apple generally believes that the goal of the algorithm should be to preserve the design of the typeface as much as possible, even at the cost of a little bit of blurriness.
Microsoft generally believes that the shape of each letter should be hammered into pixel boundaries to prevent blur and improve readability, even at the cost of not being true to the typeface."
http://technicalconclusions.wordpress.com/2007/08/23/subpixel-rendering/