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Germany Warns Against Using Firefox

Posted by timothy on from the fuer-ihre-sicherheit dept.

jayme0227 writes "Due to the recent exploit in Firefox, Germany has warned against its use. This comes a couple months after Germany advised against using IE. Perhaps we should start taking odds as to which browser will be next." Note: the warning (from the Federal Office for Information Security) is provisional, and should be rendered moot by the release later this month of 3.6.2.

15 of 509 comments (clear)

  1. 3.6.2 released by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yup

    1. Re:3.6.2 released by gzipped_tar · · Score: 5, Insightful

      > No ability to view pr0n.

      I doubt that.

      --
      Colorless green Cthulhu waits dreaming furiously.
    2. Re:3.6.2 released by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      http://www.asciipr0n.com/

    3. Re:3.6.2 released by impaledsunset · · Score: 4, Funny

      http://secunia.com/advisories/search/?search=lynx

  2. Free software in action by Statecraftsman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As soon as I read about this on /. I realized Firefox is downloading an update to 3.6.2. This is why free software is our best tool against malware. Reaction time can scale with importance. And (shameless free software plug alert) it's why I wrote what's in my sig.

    1. Re:Free software in action by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      That is a really poor standard you have. I don't want software that patches exploits quickly, I want software that was correctly written and had no exploits to begin with.

    2. Re:Free software in action by Zoidbot · · Score: 5, Interesting

      You know it's taken over a month to fix this right? The exploit was discovered 18-02-2010 according to securina.

      Opera takes less than a week usually (and the occurrence of exploits is less also).

      The argument that Open Source allows anyone to fix things and thus making patches quicker does not work, as clearly it also opens up your code for hackers to review looking for new exploits. I don't believe in security by obscurity, but the fact remains, Opera is closed source and the most secure (and fastest) web browser out there.

    3. Re:Free software in action by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 5, Insightful

      A sad day on Slashdot when someone saying "programming correctly is the right response" and he's ridiculed by at least 4 replies and modded +3 Funny. What the hell happened to this place?

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    4. Re:Free software in action by chthon · · Score: 4, Funny

      They where probably all reactions from people who program for a living.

    5. Re:Free software in action by Jurily · · Score: 4, Funny

      OpenBSD seems to do just fine, with a bigger codebase, written in C.

      Wanna guess what the difference is? They have security-obsessed people in charge.

      Nobody gets credit for fixing a bug. Instead, we celebrate the people who get a fix out fastest. We don't care about flammable buildings, but we watch the response time of the fire department like a hawk.

    6. Re:Free software in action by selven · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Because "don't set this place on fire" is not a fire escape plan. Bugs and vulnerabilities will happen either way, and you still need a plan for dealing with them.

  3. To add some information to the void.. by Seth+Kriticos · · Score: 4, Informative

    The vulnerability *only* affects the current 3.6 branch. Patch is complete and will be pushed on the 30th of March.

    Here is the Mozilla blog entry on the topic:
    http://blog.mozilla.com/security/2010/03/18/update-on-secunia-advisory-sa38608

    Here is the original bug report:
    http://secunia.com/advisories/38608

    Ps: can we please get security related articles with some content instead of *OMG, we are all going to die!!* ??

  4. First by Beelzebud · · Score: 4, Funny

    First they came for IE, and I didn't speak up because I didn't use IE.

    Then they came for Firefox, and I didn't speak up because I didn't use Firefox.

    1. Re:First by pagaboy · · Score: 4, Funny

      Then they came for Windows ME...

  5. It ain't over till the fat lady sings by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Funny

    Opera. As any fule kno, Germans are really keen on opera. They have some that go on for weeks.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."