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Google Chrome Most Resilient Against Attacks, Researchers Find (helpnetsecurity.com)

Between Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Internet Explorer, Chrome has been found to be the most resilient against attacks, an analysis by security researchers has found. Firefox, Safari, and Opera were not included in the test. From a report: "Modern web browsers such as Chrome or Edge improved security in recent years. Exploitation of vulnerabilities is certainly more complex today and requires a higher skill than in the past. However, the attack surface of modern web browsers is increasing due to new technologies and the increasing complexity of web browsers themselves," noted Markus Vervier, Managing Director of German IT security outfit X41 D-Sec (and one of the researchers involved in the analysis). The researchers' aim was to determine which browser provides the highest level of security in common enterprise usage scenarios.

17 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. Why even compare by volodymyrbiryuk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Chrome to the slow kid and his autistic older brother.

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    1. Re:Why even compare by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 2
      --
      #DeleteFacebook
  2. Uh, Chrome vs Firefox is all that matters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seriously, what is the point of this unless it compares Chrome to Firefox. Those are the only ones that actually matter!

    1. Re:Uh, Chrome vs Firefox is all that matters by theweatherelectric · · Score: 2

      Not for long. Edge's marketshare is increasing and Firefox's marketshare is decreasing.

      Edge's usage is one quarter to one third of Firefox's. It's got a way to go yet.

      they're doomed

      Unlikely. You should try Firefox 57. It will be released to the beta channel in a week or so.

    2. Re:Uh, Chrome vs Firefox is all that matters by geekmux · · Score: 2

      Chrome, Safari and Edge are the only ones that matter in the real world. Even if you combine both Firefox and Opera they still have less marketshare than any of those three.

      Given the general level of ignorance and stupidity that often leads to consumers being successfully hacked and exploited, I don't know why people continue to value the metric of marketshare when it comes to mass ignorance and browser usage.

      Marketshare doesn't keep me secure. A good browser does.

    3. Re:Uh, Chrome vs Firefox is all that matters by Sigma+7 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The point is to say "Hi, we're so skilled and want funding". Who cares about doing proper research, we're just doing enough to make a pretty 190 page document. Slightly more useful is a document that helps instruct new programmers on information on how to harden code, as opposed to a comparison on which features browsers implement.

      My opinion on the research itself: A quick scan on the document doesn't have mention of "Punycode", which was a semi-recent vulnerability which is rather important. Comparing the speed at handling that issue gives a good indicaton on the health of the browser. (For reference, Chrome, Edge and Pale Moon fix the issue. Meanwhile, Firefox fails despite an alternate version working fine. You can test you browser yourself by visitng Apple.com to see the secure lock symbol.)

    4. Re:Uh, Chrome vs Firefox is all that matters by swillden · · Score: 2

      My opinion on the research itself: A quick scan on the document doesn't have mention of "Punycode", which was a semi-recent vulnerability which is rather important.

      This isn't that type of security analysis. It doesn't assess known vulnerabilities, but instead analyzes organizational and architectural characteristics to determine how likely the browsers are to resist future vulnerabilities. Both sorts of analyses are useful and informative. Rapid and effective correction of vulnerabilities discovered is an important tool for security, but so is designing for defense in depth.

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  3. Re:Open Source is a failure. by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 2

    Firefox is but one open source projet. And the failure is not in being OSS, it's in not listening to their users, i.e. the users keep saying for years that your program has memory leaks, that you should fix that instead of adding more bloated features that nobody asked for, and all you do is put your fingers in your ears and go "la-la-la-I can't-hear-you-la-la-la" then of course you're going to fail.

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    #DeleteFacebook
  4. Are you kidding me?! by the_skywise · · Score: 3, Insightful

    We compared Chrome to one of the most reviled web browsers in the world for poor security and discovered it came out on top! You won't believe what happened next - click here!

    1. Re:Are you kidding me?! by Baron_Yam · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yeah, without Firefox, Safari, and Opera... it's really a pointless study unless you're merely looking for documented empirical backing for common knowledge.

      Of course, the study was sponsored by Google. I'm willing to concede it was likely a fair study for what it studied, but I'd bet the scope was limited to make Chrome look better.

    2. Re:Are you kidding me?! by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 2

      This is probably how it went...

      Chrome vs Safari and Firefox: Chrome is 1.27% better.
      Chrome vs the retarded Duo (Internet Explorer and Edge): Chrome is 45.9% better.

      "Let's use the 45.9% one."

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      #DeleteFacebook
  5. Not surprisingly. by Qbertino · · Score: 2

    Chrome is a pillar of Googles strategy against Apple, Facebook and MicroSoft. They'd be stupid to let things slide with Chrome.

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    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
  6. Important paragraph from the intro by swillden · · Score: 3, Informative

    There's an important paragraph in the introduction:

    The analysis has been sponsored by Google. X41 D-Sec GmbH accepted this sponsorship on the condition that Google would not interfere with our testing methodology or control the content of our paper. We are aware that we could unconsciously be biased to produce results favorable to our sponsor, and have attempted to eliminate this by being as transparent as possible about our decision-making processes and testing methodologies.

    You can read the paper yourself to determine whether they succeeded at avoiding biasing their results. One up-front question is why they didn't include Firefox. Based on public vulnerabilities and Pwn2Own and similar competitions, FF is less secure than Chrome, but often better than Edge. Safari tends to trail by a large margin, so its exclusion doesn't surprise me, nor does the exclusion of Opera and other browsers with very small market share.

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  7. Re:Open Source is a failure. by brianerst · · Score: 4, Interesting

    And the memory leaks are largely caused by an unsafe extension system that is being replaced by a new, more thread-safe extension system. And the wailing and gnashing of teeth continue.

    "Firefox has memory leaks!"
    "Fixed the ones in Firefox, the rest are bad extensions (probably AdBlock)"

    "Firefox's Javascript is slow!"
    "Fixed that"

    "Firefox is slow"
    "We'll move to a new threading model that's lots faster and requires us to fix our leaky extension model too"

    "You're breaking my extensions - why don't you listen to what your users WANT???"
    [sigh...]

  8. Link to actual research by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 2

    Link to actual research:
    https://browser-security.x41-dsec.de/X41-Browser-Security-White-Paper.pdf

    because Slashdot editors are lazy. More seriously, this paper appears to be a must-read if you're responsible for desktop or other end-user security. (The examples are great.)

  9. Firefox 57 will likely destroy Firefox. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Your attitude is a perfect example of why Firefox is on its way out. If you knew anything about Firefox 57 you'd know that it could very well be the final nail in Firefox's coffin. You would not be recommending that users look forward to it!

    Firefox 57 is due in November, and it's the first release that's supposed to only support WebExtensions extensions. This will very likely break many existing extensions. Due to differing capabilities between the existing extension model and WebExtensions it may not even be possible to reimplement some existing extensions!

    So I think we'll see two things happen:

    1) A small number of Firefox users will continue to use pre-57 versions, so they can continue to use extensions that won't be or can't be supported in Firefox 57 and beyond.

    2) A much larger number of Firefox users will move to Chrome (or Chromium) and never look back. If all of their extensions use a Chrome-like model, there's no reason to use Firefox. In my experience, and that of many other people, Firefox is very slow, bloated, and memory-hungry compared to Chrome. I'm sure you'll parade some bullshit "benchmarks" showing otherwise, but these benchmarks don't correspond at all to the actual experience of using Firefox and feeling just how less responsive it is than Chrome.

    Firefox's market share is already pretty pathetic. Firefox 54 has only 2.94% of the market. Firefox 55 has only 1.19%. Firefox 52 has 0.49%. The rest of Firefox's releases, including Firefox for Android, are well under 1%. Many of them are in the 0.01% to 0.05% range.

    I wouldn't be at all surprised if Firefox 57 knocks Firefox down to the 1% to 2% range.

    Firefox is already pretty irrelevant now that's down to about 5%. When it's down to the lowest of the low single-digit percentages, the chance of a recovery will basically become non-existent. And once the Yahoo search deal expires, it's doubtful that any other organization will want to sign a search deal with Mozilla. Why would they, if Firefox has only 1% or maybe 2% of the market at that time? Firefox's future will be even bleaker than it already is if Mozilla were to lose out on their main source of income.

    You hype Firefox 57 as if it's a good thing. The evidence suggests otherwise. It shows that Firefox 57 has the potential to be the most disastrous release in Firefox's history, even worse than the early rapid-release extension breakage debacle and even worse than the Australis debacle.

    1. Re:Firefox 57 will likely destroy Firefox. by theweatherelectric · · Score: 2

      Your attitude is a perfect example of why Firefox is on its way out.

      What attitude is that? Rationality?

      If you knew anything about Firefox 57 you'd know that it could very well be the final nail in Firefox's coffin.

      Unlikely. Use Firefox 57 first, talk second.