Another Reason to STOP using Internet Explorer and switch to Chrome/Firefox

[Sonomaa]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/04...f_ie_zero_day/

US, UK govt: Friends don't let friends use Internet Explorer – try Chrome or Firefox

IE 6 to 11 at risk of hijacking, patch coming – but not for XP

By Simon Sharwood, 27 Apr 2014


Microsoft has warned of a new security flaw in all versions of its Internet Explorer web browser for Windows PCs.
Vulnerability CVE-2014-1776, to give the problem its formal name, allows miscreants to hijack at-risk Windows computers. It's all due to “the way Internet Explorer accesses an object in memory that has been deleted or has not been properly allocated”, the software giant explained on Saturday.



The flaw means the browser “may corrupt memory in a way that could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code in the context of the current user within Internet Explorer".
"Microsoft is aware of limited, targeted attacks that attempt to exploit [this] vulnerability in Internet Explorer," the software giant added.
"An attacker could host a specially crafted website that is designed to exploit this vulnerability through Internet Explorer and then convince a user to view the website.”
Internet Explorer 6 through 11 are all at risk, on all current versions of Windows from Vista to 8 and Windows Server 2003 to 2012 R2. The bug is understood to be present in IE on Windows XP, although that operating system is no longer supported.
Redmond's recommended reaction to the problem is to deploy version 4.1 of The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET), as that software “helps mitigate the exploitation of this vulnerability by adding additional protection layers that make the vulnerability harder to exploit.”
The US Homeland Security's Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT) has urged "users and administrators enable Microsoft EMET where possible and consider employing an alternative web browser until an official update is available". The UK CERT suggests using Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or another browser.
Microsoft suggests a few other workarounds, such as switching on IE's Enhanced Protected Mode or setting security levels to “High” to stop ActiveX controls and Active Scripting working.
The upside, if there is any, is that Windows Server's default settings make it hard to create the kind of honeypot website that could exploit this flaw.
Microsoft has not said when a patch will arrive, but has hat-tipped FireEye for helping it to find the flaw. The security biz described the bug as a use-after-free blunder. ®

MAKE THE SWITCH NOW, FRIENDS DONT LET FRIENDS DRIVE IE!


Do it for your friends, your loved ones, your porn, your games, your MMO account of choice. You dont want to be taken away from your MMO do you?

[Meresgi]

Reminds me of when it was found that you could send people malicious images through outlook and the way Outlook processed them opened the system up to remote access.

[Ratatapa]

If only i could make users switch

[Meresgi]

If only i could make users switch

Do what we do, set Chrome to default and get rid of the IE icon, link the shortcut for IE to chrome

[Dantrag]

You could just make the Chrome icon into the IE one :D

[Ratatapa]

Do what we do, set Chrome to default and get rid of the IE icon, link the shortcut for IE to chrome

90% of their websites requires ActiveX

[Meresgi]

90% of their websites requires ActiveX

They're doing it wrong.

[Ratatapa]

blame the webmasters not the users

[Ragnell]

IE is never needed, there are Addons to make Chrome/FF have a IE tab /incase/ you need to ONLY use IE

[Ragns]

Repost of the browser usage over the years on BG forums:



It is quite surprising that almost 35% of the people on a geek forum used to use IE.

[Gulkeeva]

I still use firefox because chrome (not even the 64 bit) can handle the amount of things I browse ;/

[SephYuyX]

Never stopped using IE; no reason to.

[Cantih]

I still use firefox because chrome (not even the 64 bit) can handle the amount of things I browse ;/

Until Chrome lets me use full power, independent 3rd party extensions, including Adblock Plus, NoScript, Ghostery, and HTTPS Everywhere, I'll stay with Firefox.

[RKenshin]

Workplace forces IE (v9, no less) use for all employees... something I will never grasp or understand.

[The Stig]

Workplace forces IE (v9, no less) use for all employees... something I will never grasp or understand.

It's official and very secure. 3rd party scum like Firefox and Chrome cannot be trusted!!!!

[Scizor]

It's official and very secure. 3rd party scum like Firefox and Chrome cannot be trusted!!!!

We enforce IE9, most of our in house software was created many moons ago and no one can be arsed to update it.

[The Stig]

Yeh that's the true reason here. We have a web based system from 2002 that's used internally. Firefox and Chrome rejects it like rotten fish. IE6 and IE8 loads it fine though lol. Updating it seems to be possibly a huge risk and/or cost implications.

EDIT: On the serious side, I'm unsure how true this is, but with IE you can restrict a lot of actions/choices based on Group policy. I'm unsure if it can be done for Firefix/Chrome, not without extensively hacking the thing apart to restrict features (I know you can do so in Firefox). Perhaps this is one core/primary reason?

[Ratatapa]

Trying to use Ietab for tests purposes, and stuff like google search doesn't work correctly

Like the page is not formated, everything is stuck to the left of the page

[RKenshin]

I refuse to admit there can ever be proper justifications.

[Twilight Sky]

I haven't used IE in about 12-13 yrs. Never even got to IE6.