Explorer 8
Just after releasing the Internet Explorer 8 at the MIX09 conference in Las Vegas on Thursday, Microsoft via email messages thanked the testers for their hard work & support and asked them to continue testing the new web browser for flaws that were previously marked as fixed and keep posting their feedbacks and keep reporting the company about the new bugs, if they find any.
Microsoft said, "We are looking for new IE8 bugs and bugs that have regressed (meaning the bug was previously fixed and now occurs in IE8 RTW)… The Internet Explorer 8 Feedback website on Microsoft Connect will remain open and we will not delete any of your previously submitted bugs. In the next couple of months, we will introduce a new type of feedback form designed specifically to handle improvements for the next version of Internet Explorer."
Meanwhile, Microsoft has been getting mixed response on its Internet Explorer 8. Some users have posted negative feedbacks, while some have sent positive feedbacks.
Some of the early users of Internet Explorer 8 have reported that the new browser causing some unexpected problems, such as missing Web content, system crashes, and Internet tools that don't function properly
On the Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 Feedback page, one of the early users, who identified himself as Aviramoff wrote, "I have just installed IE8 and still the search option doesn't work. All I get is a blank line with no search box so what and where is the problem?"
Bob, another user, complained that IE8 was not displaying some sites properly. Bob wrote, "After downloading IE8 I cannot print any card from American Greetings. The message I get is, 'An error occurred during the operation."
Phil Wheeler, another user, reported that IE8 didn't show even the pages created with Microsoft's own Web publishing software, properly. Wheeler wrote, "I created my company's Web site using the MS Publisher 2007 template. After upgrading IE7 to IE8 my menu tabs and many important images no longer show."
However, some of the users, like Lambert, sound pretty happy and contented with IE8. Lambert wrote, "In my first 30 minutes of using IE8 on my Vista Business Edition I am very pleased. The browser opens in a quarter of the time that it did in IE7. Normally I would not bother posting such an effusive comment, but IE8 is that good."
The web researcher, Net Applications Inc. on Friday stated that Microsoft's IE8 saw some surge in the market share on Thursday, after it was released. According to Net Applications, On Thursday afternoon, the market share of IE8 averaged 1.63%, which indicated 21% increase over March's daily average of 1.35% through Wednesday.
On Friday, the market share of IE8 surged to an hourly average of 1.75% through 11:00 a. m. Eastern time, pushing the web browser's total increase to 30% over the month's daily average.
According to Net Applications, the market share of IE8 surged 1% mark for the first time last month, when it accounted for 1.2% of all browsers used.
In its previous report, before the release of IE8, Net Applications has stated that the market share of Microsoft's Internet Explorer has fallen from 75% to 67% in just the past 12 months, while Apple's Safari and Mozilla's Firefox have gained against Microsoft.
From Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 to Apple Safari, popular Internet browsers have taken a bit of a public beating the week of March 16. Even as hackers continue to focus most of their attention on Web applications, exploits targeting the browser always make juicy tidbits for black hats.
In Cenzic's Web Application Security Trends Report, (PDF) released March 18, the vulnerability assessment and risk management software company found that there was 7 percent increase in the number of browser vulnerabilities in the second half of 2008. Microsoft Internet Explorer accounted for 43 percent of that total, with Mozilla Firefox following closely with 39 percent. Apple Safari and Opera Software's Opera browser accounted for 10 and 8 percent, respectively.
Then there was the Pwn2Own contest. Hosted by TippingPoint, the annual hacking event at CanSecWest this year saw security on IE, Safari and Firefox all go down for the count.
With all this as a backdrop, it should be noted that browser security in general is improving, some researchers said. The past few years have seen an increasing amount of security built into browsers, ranging from IE 8's cross-site scripting filter to the sandboxing in Google Chrome, which Charlie Miller, one of the prize winners at the 2009 Pwn2Own event, said limits the amount of damage that can be done.
"Most vendors have become [resigned] to the fact that bugs will always exist," said Miller, an analyst with Independent Security Evaluators. "That means what is left is making it impossible to exploit the vulnerabilities and do malicious acts. So sandboxing is another hurdle the bad guy will have to get through."
Anti-phishing features in the major browsers have also helped make them more secure. But that can be augmented with whitelisting services, Gartner analyst John Pescatore said.
"[In addition,] businesses really, really, really need a way to tell if a human is operating the browser, or is this connection coming from a spider or botnet client or screen-scraper," Pescatore said. "The browser guys could work with the Web app server—Microsoft and Apache … to come up with some way of the browser declaring 'a local keyboard is operating me' would be a huge help [in] fighting automated fraud."
Still, efforts to authenticate active code such as IE's Authenticode, wean users off using cookies to remember user names and passwords, or detect pass-through attacks such as buffer overflows have not met with broad success, said Eric Ogren, principal analyst with The Ogren Group. The fundamental problem is the standard usability versus security argument.
"Browsers have to serve so many needs that their attack surfaces are exceptionally difficult to secure," Ogren said. "The biggest problem is that classic security techniques constrain the user experience to the point where the browser will not be used."
Microsoft said, "We are looking for new IE8 bugs and bugs that have regressed (meaning the bug was previously fixed and now occurs in IE8 RTW)… The Internet Explorer 8 Feedback website on Microsoft Connect will remain open and we will not delete any of your previously submitted bugs. In the next couple of months, we will introduce a new type of feedback form designed specifically to handle improvements for the next version of Internet Explorer."
Meanwhile, Microsoft has been getting mixed response on its Internet Explorer 8. Some users have posted negative feedbacks, while some have sent positive feedbacks.
Some of the early users of Internet Explorer 8 have reported that the new browser causing some unexpected problems, such as missing Web content, system crashes, and Internet tools that don't function properly
On the Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 Feedback page, one of the early users, who identified himself as Aviramoff wrote, "I have just installed IE8 and still the search option doesn't work. All I get is a blank line with no search box so what and where is the problem?"
Bob, another user, complained that IE8 was not displaying some sites properly. Bob wrote, "After downloading IE8 I cannot print any card from American Greetings. The message I get is, 'An error occurred during the operation."
Phil Wheeler, another user, reported that IE8 didn't show even the pages created with Microsoft's own Web publishing software, properly. Wheeler wrote, "I created my company's Web site using the MS Publisher 2007 template. After upgrading IE7 to IE8 my menu tabs and many important images no longer show."
However, some of the users, like Lambert, sound pretty happy and contented with IE8. Lambert wrote, "In my first 30 minutes of using IE8 on my Vista Business Edition I am very pleased. The browser opens in a quarter of the time that it did in IE7. Normally I would not bother posting such an effusive comment, but IE8 is that good."
The web researcher, Net Applications Inc. on Friday stated that Microsoft's IE8 saw some surge in the market share on Thursday, after it was released. According to Net Applications, On Thursday afternoon, the market share of IE8 averaged 1.63%, which indicated 21% increase over March's daily average of 1.35% through Wednesday.
On Friday, the market share of IE8 surged to an hourly average of 1.75% through 11:00 a. m. Eastern time, pushing the web browser's total increase to 30% over the month's daily average.
According to Net Applications, the market share of IE8 surged 1% mark for the first time last month, when it accounted for 1.2% of all browsers used.
In its previous report, before the release of IE8, Net Applications has stated that the market share of Microsoft's Internet Explorer has fallen from 75% to 67% in just the past 12 months, while Apple's Safari and Mozilla's Firefox have gained against Microsoft.
From Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 to Apple Safari, popular Internet browsers have taken a bit of a public beating the week of March 16. Even as hackers continue to focus most of their attention on Web applications, exploits targeting the browser always make juicy tidbits for black hats.
In Cenzic's Web Application Security Trends Report, (PDF) released March 18, the vulnerability assessment and risk management software company found that there was 7 percent increase in the number of browser vulnerabilities in the second half of 2008. Microsoft Internet Explorer accounted for 43 percent of that total, with Mozilla Firefox following closely with 39 percent. Apple Safari and Opera Software's Opera browser accounted for 10 and 8 percent, respectively.
Then there was the Pwn2Own contest. Hosted by TippingPoint, the annual hacking event at CanSecWest this year saw security on IE, Safari and Firefox all go down for the count.
With all this as a backdrop, it should be noted that browser security in general is improving, some researchers said. The past few years have seen an increasing amount of security built into browsers, ranging from IE 8's cross-site scripting filter to the sandboxing in Google Chrome, which Charlie Miller, one of the prize winners at the 2009 Pwn2Own event, said limits the amount of damage that can be done.
"Most vendors have become [resigned] to the fact that bugs will always exist," said Miller, an analyst with Independent Security Evaluators. "That means what is left is making it impossible to exploit the vulnerabilities and do malicious acts. So sandboxing is another hurdle the bad guy will have to get through."
Anti-phishing features in the major browsers have also helped make them more secure. But that can be augmented with whitelisting services, Gartner analyst John Pescatore said.
"[In addition,] businesses really, really, really need a way to tell if a human is operating the browser, or is this connection coming from a spider or botnet client or screen-scraper," Pescatore said. "The browser guys could work with the Web app server—Microsoft and Apache … to come up with some way of the browser declaring 'a local keyboard is operating me' would be a huge help [in] fighting automated fraud."
Still, efforts to authenticate active code such as IE's Authenticode, wean users off using cookies to remember user names and passwords, or detect pass-through attacks such as buffer overflows have not met with broad success, said Eric Ogren, principal analyst with The Ogren Group. The fundamental problem is the standard usability versus security argument.
"Browsers have to serve so many needs that their attack surfaces are exceptionally difficult to secure," Ogren said. "The biggest problem is that classic security techniques constrain the user experience to the point where the browser will not be used."