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Insecure Plugins Ding IE, Safari, Chrome, Opera

Posted by kdawson on from the black-powder-in-the-sandbox dept.

krebsonsecurity writes "The Web browser wars often focus on which browser is more secure, but the dirty secret is that insecure plugins are a serious threat to all browsers, from the perspectives of both stability and security. Krebsonsecurity.com features an informative look at the administration page for a popular browser exploit kit called Eleonora, which suggests that plugins like Adobe Reader and Java are leading to successful compromises for users surfing not just with Internet Explorer, but also with Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Opera."

5 of 141 comments (clear)

  1. The model by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Perhaps the real insecurity is the whole model whereby the entire system depends on the ability for any random server to download arbitrary program code to your machine and execute it just because you visited their server, or a page that had an embedded link to your server.

    It is probably foolish to believe that you could ever build a [useful] system that had no security flaws but still allowed untrusted, unprompted arbitrary code execution.

  2. Re:The problem isn't browsers. by Kalriath · · Score: 5, Informative

    Correct except for one tiny little issue. Basically, a browser plugin can escape the sandbox by running a broker process outside of the browser context if they have a real need to. Adobe, arguably world leaders in information insecurity, decided that Flash (perhaps the most insecure plugin ever) needed that unsandboxed access, and created a broker for it. With functions like "writeArbitraryDataToHardDisk()" and "runArbitraryProbablyInsecureProgram()".

    --
    For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
  3. Re:Sandboxing? by jpmorgan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    IE7/8 uses NT6.x's mandatory access control mechanism to run itself in 'protected mode,' which really just means it's running as a low integrity process with minimal system access. It also uses a different plugin model from Chrome and Firefox, and yes, it tries to run plugins inside the low-integrity sandbox.

    The problem is that Sun and Adobe took the shortcut of explicitly breaking the sandbox (from the outside) rather than make Java and Flash work within it.

  4. Re:Headline? by BeerCat · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why doesn't the headline list Firefox, too?

    But... when you're running Firefox, it reads:

    Slashdot|Insecure Plugins Ding IE, Safari, Chrome, Opera - Mozilla Firefox

    so Firefox is part of the headline!

    Oh wait...

    --
    "She's furniture with a pulse"
  5. Re:Firefox? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't know what you are talking about.

    My browser's title says "Slashdot IT Story | Insecure Plugins Ding IE, Safari, Chrome, Opera - Mozilla Firefox"