CERT Recommends Mozilla, Firefox 529
EvilStein writes "According to this article, "CERT recommends that Explorer users consider other browsers that are not affected by the attack, such as Mozilla, Mozilla Firefox, Netscape and Opera."
Quite a statement from CERT - this is related to a fairly recent IIS or IE exploit that has already affected some high traffic web sites, such as the Kelley Blue Book website."
When there's no other fix... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:When there's no other fix... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:When there's no other fix... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:When there's no other fix... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:When there's no other fix... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:When there's no other fix... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:When there's no other fix... (Score:5, Insightful)
Too bad that won't work. The cross zone attacks work regardless of your security settings in IE. And AV products don't pick up the attacks (as far as I'm aware). This is a fundamental flaw in IE that _needs_ to be fixed, but isn't (it's over 10 months old).
jon
What do you mean over 10 months old (Score:4, Interesting)
The big question is how many times it has been used to get information out of companys.
Basicly it effects win 95+ I still have to test ie6sp1 to see of a javascript can still buffer overflow and crash the machine like to use to. But that one worked also from 1995 and was reported in 1995 1996 1998 by me same sample code and no fix even in 6 just have not tested 6sp1 for it. Basicly I have been wasting my breath telling them they do nothing.
There is a short form of the responce you are not ment to code a webpage like that.
My code did not follow coding rules correct yes but a cracker does not have to flow rules it just has to work. The funny part is that the code works flawlessly with Netscape and Mozilla and Netscape created Javascript(ie the standard).
Now I get into trouble because I hate Microsoft and people cannot understand why ie you must be a zelot or something. No I am not a Zelot I just hate people not fixing problems I report.
Also I wish people would stop reporting directly to microsoft but start reporting in the press. It seams to be the only way to get them off there tail.
Please note a lot of problems inside IE extend back to them not flowing standard or breaking them for a pratical reason.(them controling the market).
The most effect way to explot this back door is to send a email containing a automatic direct link to the web site and install the spyware. Nice little ie flaw merged with a nice little outlook express flaw creating Access to a machine to extract data.
The Cracker uses of this have been heavyly over looked for far to long. If you are using outlook or IE change now.
Re:When there's no other fix... (Score:5, Informative)
THEN COMPLAIN, DAMMIT! (Score:5, Interesting)
Write to their feedback page, letters to the editor, or ombudsman. Tell them: 1) their failure to mention that this only affects Windows users running IE needlessly worries people using other OSes and browsers, and 2) their failure to mention alternative browsers means they missed an opportunity to assist the general public on an important matter.
I did. I also did this a couple of years ago when some Windows virus came out (can't remember which one -- there are so many) and CNN failed to mention it was a Windows-only problem. The next time a major virus came out (I think it was a few weeks), I noticed that CNN actually mentioned that non-Windows users were not at risk.
Obviously, we need to keep reminding them.
Oh, and if you do, be polite!!!
(And if you already did, then good for you! And my apologies for implying you didn't.)
The Age doesn't like Microsoft much... (Score:5, Interesting)
Couple of choice quotes:
"The Microsoft co-founder and one of the world's richest men is in Sydney today for a press appearance so tightly scripted and controlled it could have been orchestrated by US President George W. Bush's media office."
"At least the assembled do not have to submit their retinas or fingerprints for scanning - possibly because Microsoft can't come to grips with good security."
"Those running the market-leading open source Apache web server, who use desktop operating systems such as Mac OS X or GNU/Linux, or Windows web browsers other than Explorer (such as Opera or Mozilla) were inoculated from the virus."
There's quite a bit more, all fun reading.
More importantly... (Score:3, Insightful)
At least he didn't continue a myth. (Score:5, Interesting)
Mac, Linux and other non-Windows operating systems are immune from this attack.
At least he said "this attack" instead of "attacks".
Re:At least he didn't continue a myth. (Score:5, Interesting)
Hoorah! Lord knows Code Red, Nimda, Blaster, Sasser and the like were nightmares for us Mac and Linux people.
Really, tho: to what recent widespread non-Windows "attacks" are you referring?
xox,
Dead Nancy
Re:At least he didn't continue a myth. (Score:5, Insightful)
Yup wich is why IIS the underdog server is attacke (Score:5, Insightful)
Explain please.
Re:Yup wich is why IIS the underdog server is atta (Score:5, Insightful)
[*] Apache is more secure than IIS. That's a fact, but it's different to saying that all open-source software is more secure. It certainly doens't prove that linux is more secure than windows (although other evidence certainly does)
[*] Apache runs more websites, but lots of those are on the same computer. My website runs on the same Apache server as 2782 other websites. My sourceforge websites run on the same Apache server as 83000 other websites. Domain-squatters run tens of thousands of "websites" from one Apache server. So you only need one competent admin, and suddenly thousands of Apache websites are secure.
[*] I think IIS can tend to expose more services than Apache -- most people setting up Apache are running an HTTP or HTTPS server, and they think long and hard and read documentation before expanding it to run more services than that. I've not used IIS, but I imagine that it's easy and tempting to run everything from windows workgroups to DNS to email servers at the click of a checkbox and without any need to understand what's being created. Perhaps there's a lack of care among IIS admins contributing to the problem?
Re:Yup wich is why IIS the underdog server is atta (Score:3, Insightful)
You claim that if Linux was as popular as Windows, you'd see a lot more widespread security issues with it.
He countered with a specific example of a Microsoft product against another OS product. The OS product is more widely deployed than IIS, yet has far less security problems.
What makes you think that Microsoft products aren't inherently more insecure? IIS certainly is. IE certainly is. OE certainly is.
Perhaps if Linux was more popular
Re:Yup wich is why IIS the underdog server is atta (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Yup wich is why IIS the underdog server is atta (Score:4, Insightful)
Microsoft tends to like big programs which try to do lots of things, with lots of threading for multi-tasking. IIS does plenty of things other than web serving... On top of this there is Microsoft deliberatly writing "sphagetti code" in the name of "integration".
Given enough time and effort microsoft products, like any piece of software has the potential to be bullet proof.
It would be a case of rewriting more or less from scratch.
Re:At least he didn't continue a myth. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:At least he didn't continue a myth. (Score:5, Informative)
Better security is not a myth. (Score:5, Insightful)
Credit is being given where credit belongs. The softies can try to spin this, but they will fail as there is little hope for them to fix their platform's underlying design flaws. Microsoft remains a security dissaster.
While no one will tell you that free software is immune to attack, they can tell you that free software users are not monthly victims attacks that take advantage of moronic software design. Can anyone point to a single free software worm that auto propagated?
The variety of free software and it's quality makes such stuff very difficult to design. Imagine that you did find an exploit for a popular linux desktop that could propagate itself. Right away, you are limited to less than half of the linux population. I use KDE, others use Gnome, Window Maker, OLVWM and so on to console emacs. Typically, news of the exploit is trumpted with bug fixes and patches. Problem solved, usually without loss of data.
The widespread, spam sending, net threatening DoS attacks that we have seen on the Microsoft monoculture won't happen with free software.
Re:Better security is not a myth. (Score:5, Insightful)
Can anyone point to a single free software worm that auto propagated?
Depending upon how loose you are with the term free, The Great Worm [campusprogram.com] might qualify: it attacked BSD, which while not "free" at the time WAS shared source and is an ancestor to one of the titans of Free Software. Yes, MS is more exploitable than FOSS; but that's not an absolute.
Re:Better security is not a myth. (Score:5, Informative)
How about the lion [sans.org] and ramen [sans.org] worms from 2001? Or how about the fact that someone is trying to convince phatbot/agobot to compile on Linux?
Free software is not impervious to worms. However, due to the diversity of systems, it tends to be far more difficult to write a single exploit.
Then again, Free Software tends to have patches pretty quickly, too. Where's Microsoft with the patch for this latest pair of vulnerabilities in IE?
Re:Better security is not a myth. (Score:5, Insightful)
A list of sites (Score:5, Interesting)
San Jose Mercury news indicates Yahoo!, Earthlink, and EBay. True, not true?
Now KBB?
Thanks.
Re:A list of sites (Score:5, Informative)
Re:A list of sites (Score:5, Informative)
Re:A list of sites (Score:5, Interesting)
grep -i -R javascript *.jpg
grep -i -R javascript *.gif
When the server is infected it puts javascript content in any document retrieved, even images. I have done this on our work and home computers and have found no matches, but if someone can do this on a high-volume public browsing computer then I'm sure we can dig up the infected sites.
Re:A list of sites (Score:5, Funny)
(Please go easy on me, it's a joke.)
Later,
Patrick
Re:A list of sites (Score:4, Informative)
Searches for strings in files.
FINDSTR [/B] [/E] [/L] [/R] [/S] [/I] [/X] [/V] [/N] [/M] [/O] [/P] [/F:file]
[/C:string] [/G:file] [/D:dir list] [/A:color attributes] [/OFF[LINE]]
strings [[drive:][path]filename[
subdirectories.
strings Text to be searched for.
[drive:][path]filename
Specifies a file or files to search.
Use spaces to separate multiple search strings unless the argument is prefixed
with
"there" in file x.y. 'FINDSTR
"hello there" in file x.y.
Regular expression quick reference:
. Wildcard: any character
* Repeat: zero or more occurances of previous character or class
^ Line position: beginning of line
$ Line position: end of line
[class] Character class: any one character in set
[^class] Inverse class: any one character not in set
[x-y] Range: any characters within the specified range
\x Escape: literal use of metacharacter x
\ Word position: end of word
For full information on FINDSTR regular expressions refer to the online Command
Reference.
Re:A list of sites (Score:5, Informative)
One site that I host (FreeBSD/Apache) has many banner ads and popups. The logic of the site layout though, loads the ads first, then the site, so we appeared to be down.
Also, the javascript used to spawn the popups were hosted externally also. Our XP users also went into an infinite loop of popups...
Re:A list of sites (Score:5, Informative)
My writeup of the trojan and the incident is here:
http://www.lurhq.com/berbew.html [lurhq.com]
i agree with CERT (Score:5, Insightful)
the only way is to hijack people's computer, install a real broswer, and put the IE icon on it.
Re:i agree with CERT (Score:5, Informative)
Re:i agree with CERT (Score:4, Insightful)
Anyways, my point still stands - someone should make an IE theme for Firefox if one doesn't currently exist.
Re:i agree with CERT (Score:3, Insightful)
Theme+Firesomething IE "spoofing" tutorial :) (Score:5, Informative)
2. In the dialog box, remove "Mozilla" vendor and add "Microsoft". Remove all prefixes also and add "Internet". Remove all names and add "_Explorer" (substitute the underline for a leading space). Enable the "single name mode". Apply.
3. While you are at it, get the Luna Blue 0.4 theme from http://www.intraplanar.net/projects/lunablue/
4. Adjust the icons so they look really like explorer. The order should be back, forward, STOP, RELOAD, home, separator, favourites, history, separator, mail, print
5. Rename the shortcut to "Internet Explorer" and change the icon to the blue "e" (do this on the Desktop and Quick Launch bar as well)
6. Never again worry about worms.
For your benefit (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:For your benefit (Score:4, Insightful)
Not that that does you much good if you're using IE. Last I checked IE blatantly ignores mime types and uses the "file extention" of the URL, or something equally retarded along those lines.
Re:For your benefit (Score:4, Informative)
It's going to have to happen, since IE will enforce MIME types [microsoft.com] starting in XP SP2.
Yeah, (Score:3, Insightful)
But this is Slashdot, aren't they really just preaching to the choir on this one?
Re:Yeah, (Score:5, Interesting)
Even newspapers takes notice... (Score:5, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Yep, they sure do. (Score:4, Interesting)
The quote is so rich, I think I'll include it.
CERT recommends that Explorer users consider other browsers that are not affected by the attack, such as Mozilla, Mozilla Firefox, Netscape and Opera. Mac, Linux and other non-Windows operating systems are immune from this attack. For people who continue to use the Internet Explorer, CERT and Microsoft recommend setting the browser's security settings to "high," but that can impair some browsing functions.
Good bye, anti-competitive little nasty. IE was M$'s attempt to push it's desktop monopoly into the web. I'm going to be so happy when I quit running into pages that ignorantly tell me they are best viewed in IE. With it will go a whole host of proprietary crap.
Operating system (Score:5, Insightful)
-
Re:Operating system (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, considering that Internet Explorer is an "integral part of the operating system" they are only a hair shy of telling people to switch to an operating system that isn't vulnerable to so many damn critical remote vulnerabilities.
The advisory did mention that just changing browsers doesn't mean you're safe. It pointed out that IE may still be opened under certain circumstances or by other applications. So, yeah, it does seem like they're edging closer to saying it in plain English.
Re:Operating system (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm vindicated... (Score:5, Interesting)
http://channels.lockergnome.com/news/a
I am glad to see CERT step up and make a decision like this despite the fact that they are guaranteed to be flogged for it.
The correct link... (Score:3, Informative)
For the curious, here is the correct link [lockergnome.com].
Hopefully this will get more sites off IE only (Score:5, Insightful)
Nothing annoy's me more than to get a message that my browser is not supported when I visit a page!
Warning for Firefox users! (Score:5, Funny)
When holes work together... (Score:5, Informative)
This worm depends on there being flaws in both programs. It wouldn't be nearly as powerful if those two flaws couldn't be used in concert.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Incomplete statement... (Score:3, Insightful)
Just Like.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Just Like.... (Score:5, Insightful)
In the interests of accuracy, there *is* a patch for the IIS exploit which has been around for a while; it's IE that has the unpatched vulnerability. What is particularly shameful about this is that the patch to secure IIS, MS04-011, has been around for a while are should have been installed to prevent infection by Sasser and its brethren. "Named and shamed" doesn't even begin to describe what I'd like to see happen to the companies whose IIS servers are responsible for the spread of this one...
Re:Just Like.... (Score:3, Funny)
Yes. Yes. Coz IE's really dying. really dying [google.com], it is.
CNET recommendation on mozilla (Score:5, Interesting)
I now use IE only to open my native language webpages since they aren't encoded properly in firefox. I would be grateful to anyone if they can show me how to open www.eenadu.net in Firefox. The native language is Telugu, if anyone needs it
V
Re:CNET recommendation on mozilla (Score:3, Interesting)
From Avant Browser FAQ [avantbrowser.com]:
Is Avant Browser a secure browser?
Yes, Avant Browser is secure. Since it's based on Internet Explorer, Avant Browser is as secure as Internet Explorer.
:)
You are using same rendering engine. I suspect that Scob would get you in Avant Browser too. Same goes to other IE clones.
Re:CNET recommendation on mozilla (Score:3, Informative)
The page source says the charset should be both "windows-1252", "iso-8859-1" (and even "x-user-defined"). These are Western, ie. Latin character sets - I'm imagine Telugu doesn't relate to these in any way?
You should contact the authors and make them fix the page.
zRe:CNET recommendation on mozilla (Score:5, Informative)
The problem is that they are using a European character set, and just replacing the Latin characters with Telugu ones. This used to be acceptable practice, but now that all modern browsers support unicode and multiple character sets, it's really not necessary.
You should contact the site owners and have them update the site. Who uses Netscape 4 any more?
My experience with Firefox.. (Score:4, Informative)
On the other hand, I found out that it is not that simple to get rid of IE though, a quick search reveals that it is not always simple [google.com][google].
Malicious code aims at mozilla users (Score:5, Interesting)
Have you ever seen an signed mozilla extension?
Re:Malicious code aims at mozilla users (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, there are alot if signed software on Windows that contains security holes, spyware and other junk.
Re:Malicious code aims at mozilla users (Score:4, Informative)
Have you ever seen an signed mozilla extension?
Not yet, but I believe the example you're refereing to is the reason they included a whitelist (for sites allowed to install extensions) in the latest Mozilla version.
zOfcourse does CERT other browser (Score:3, Insightful)
Ofcourse they are advising something else: IE has a past of insecurity. This has two causes:
1) IE is crappy coded (it's closed-source, so there's no 'second opinion' on the code). 2) IE is wildly used, so very attractive to find a security bug in it (for malicious activities).
Therefor I recommend a non-IE browser (prefferably Opera or Firefox) to everyone.
Re:Ofcourse does CERT other browser (Score:3, Interesting)
The number of "second opinions" on code has more to do with code review process than it does with whether the program is open-source. mozilla.org requires most new code to be reviewed by 2 people. I think that does more for the quality of the code than the wide availability of source code.
Of the 50 or so security holes I've found in Mozilla (see my resume for a link to the list), I only found 2 of them by looking at the
CERT? What the heck is CERT? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:CERT? What the heck is CERT? (Score:3, Insightful)
For users who know what they're doing, IE is just as safe as anything else. I run my system behing a hardware firewall,which blocks all incoming connections, and I set my preferences to NEVER allow ActiveX to be installed.
Of course, that wouldn't have protected me against this latest threat!
Right, which means you are STILL vulnerable, right now, to this exploit in IE, which
Another 24 months... (Score:5, Insightful)
Instead of spending their effort trying to destroy their competitors (which, today, means open source software), Microsoft should be closing the gap.
Yes, all software has potential insecurities. Yes, Microsoft is targetted because they are the dominant monoculture.
But no, this changes nothing. A burglar will always go for the easiest target, and Microsoft users will always be the target so long as Windows et al. is even just slightly less secure than the alternatives.
Microsoft should release a service pack to Windows that sets the security settings on MSIE to their highest levels, even at the risk of breaking many web sites. They should sponsor anti-spyware software developers with large prizes for the best anti-spyware software. They should be talking to major ISPs for ways to detect and disable zombies.
Redmond, listen: Make Windows Secure.
Otherwise you will be tarred and feathered by your long-suffering users who will prefer any viable alternative to one more "surf at your own risk" experience.
Re:Another 24 months... (Score:5, Insightful)
I wish security were a strong enough consideration, but given how many people are spyware-riddled and don't even know it, I suspect security is just not on people's minds when they choose a computer. Perhaps when enough people lose enough money or data to an exploit this will change, but today price and familiarity are more important to them.
That doesn't mean that there aren't opportunities. The lengthy delays in Longhorn are a huge opportunity for Apple and Linux. As people buy new computers, they expect new ones to be better than old ones. If they go to the store and say, "XP again? I had it and it's really buggy," they'll start looking for alternatives. They expect bugs, but they also expect each new release to be better than the old one. Deprive them of that and they may start looking around.
Re:Another 24 months... (Score:3, Insightful)
"Redmond, listen: Make Windows Secure."
No.
Let's face it. Even if MS cancelled all other development for a year on all other products and just focused on making IE, IIS and Windows "secure", they would not become 100% secure, because there is no such thing. There is always a risk of bugs and bad undiscovered design faults and so on.
We do not l
Recommendation or Suggestion? (Score:5, Interesting)
CERT have suggested using a different browser before (e.g. here [cert.org]).
I wouldn't read too much into it myself though. If one browser has a vulnerability, and another doesn't, surely it's an obvious thing to suggest? And in the past, they've pointed out the potential problems with not using IE (i.e. incompatibilities with IE-dependent sites). More a suggestion than a recommendation I'd say.
Only 50 visitors? (Score:5, Interesting)
I had never heard of the company, but is it realistic that only 50 visitors browsed the site after it had been cracked? That seems very low, especially for a problem which was previously unknown to the Virus scanners.
What about recommendations for the servers? (Score:4, Insightful)
From the article
The attack takes advantage of several recently discovered security flaws in Microsoft's Internet browser and Internet Information Services Web software. Microsoft released a patch in April to fix one security hole in its Internet browser; the company is still working on a patch for the other flaw, which security researchers publicly detailed less than two weeks ago.
But a recommendation for the people running web servers that are vulnerable to this attack would *really* have been more useful. Excuse me if there's already some recommendation (Having a link to that in the news item'd have been better in that case)
Confusing CERT and SANS? (Score:5, Informative)
If you use IE just turn off active scripting (Score:5, Informative)
Read this:
Description of Internet Explorer security zones registry entries [microsoft.com]
Then edit the relevant key (if you don't know how, then you should just switch to using a different O/S or browser):
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\C
Change Flags from 0x21 to 0x01 to make it visible.
Once you do that you can more easily change the security settings for the My Computer zone.
You could also add your own custom zone, but if you have to ask me how to do it, you shouldn't.
Note that while disabling javascript and stuff in the My Computer zone protects you from numerous IE exploits[1], the web style windows explorer and other stuff require active scripting and other stuff to be enabled. So you would have to switch to the classic style. I don't see what benefits the web style has - other than make monitor/LCD vendors happy - it takes up more screen space.
[1] many attacks involve cross zone exploits with the aim of running the exploit in the My Computer zone which has lower security levels by default - raising the security levels e.g. requiring prompts before active-X stuff is run, disabling active scripting (I see very little need for scripts to be enabled on locally stored HTML pages, heck I see very little need for most websites to use javascript).
Re:If you use IE just turn off active scripting (Score:3, Informative)
You must not have tried Firefox then. A fresh launch of IE and Firefox to msn.com as their 1st page yielded memory usage of 26Mb and 22Mb respectively. Similar with other sites like Yahoo!
If you're talking about the Mozilla suite, then you really have to compare it to having IE
IIS? (Score:3, Interesting)
is the submitter that daft? (Score:3, Insightful)
This CERT (whatever it is) is _not_ endorsing the Mozilla family of products, it is recommending against Internet Explorer and other browser-apps (Avant/Neoplanet anyone?) who use IE's rendering engine.
Next thing, headlines will read "CERT endorses Linux apps for web browsing", merely because Mozilla and Firefox happen to run on Linux.
we would switch to firefiox IF (Score:4, Interesting)
I started (Score:3, Interesting)
Responsibility of website owner (Score:5, Insightful)
There wasn't any mention of their site being down so that means a period of what could be almost a full day where they knew their website was infecting customers with this virus but continued to let it run. Are they really allowed to do that? Perhaps they figgured the bad PR or loss of buisness from their site being down would be greater than the bad PR and loss of buisness by their customers being infected by this thing then possibly robbed when their bank info was lifted. Perhaps the article was just mistaken, google returns multiple sites [google.com] and at netcraft I can't make heads or tails of the first one but the second site appears to have remained up [netcraft.com] could they be charged for this it seems kinda like one of those people with AIDS who doesn't tell partners thier infected and goes around having unprotected sex.
But there is a (server side) patch (Score:5, Informative)
Really, this is an issue settled by termination of the employee responsible for not keeping a good record of patches and updates. Of course, that still leaves the IE problem, but with the IE team recently recreated, probably for Longhorn, but perhaps they're therer just to release an update to IE to fix this type of crap, we may see the end of these types of things. If only people would quite exploiting innocent code... Sadly, people left to their own devices will revert to base and vile activities, then add in the anonymity of the internet, you get the jerks who think it's fun to spoil the party for everyone.
But, but but.. (Score:3, Funny)
Interesting (Score:5, Interesting)
*Google shows a slight upswing in Gecko marketshare in the last couple of months
*Firefox 0.9 is an awesome release, and 1.0 promises to be a killer
*Mozilla foundation hires former Netscape marketing guy and also starts major grassroots marketing effort
*MSIE is hit with more security vuln's than ever before
*More and more mainstream tech news outlets start recommending firefox
*Microsoft is sufficiently scared to reconstitute MSIE dev team
Could this be the beginning of another round of browser wars??!!
Re:Interesting (Score:3, Informative)
* Increasing web access from mobile phones and PDAs - where the browser market is wide open. Opera is big and Nokia just pumped $$$ into Mozilla [theregister.co.uk].
Need help to migrate from IE (SlimBrowser) to FF (Score:3, Interesting)
I have been using a nice IE add-on called Slimbrowser. It has a lot of features and I really come to like it. But I also have been using Firefox and noticed rendering is 2-3 times faster than IE/SB! Would love to move from SB to FF but I noticed I want certain features that SB that I
haven't been able to find on Mozilla's website. Can anyone point me to the right direction and tell me where to download the right Windows extensions that can make Firefox have the:
1) Ability of running any Windows shortcut or folder within the browser or explorer.
2) Autologin of websites (form filling-username, pass)
3) Make your own search engines (like if I want to add yahoo maps and all i type is the destination)
4) "Groups" of websites that open in tabs at the same time
5) In-line Flash/Advertsing blocks (I noticed one of Achilles' Heels of FF is that it eats
cpu like crazy when flash is used on the page)
I would appreciate any help you can give me!
Re:Need help to migrate from IE (SlimBrowser) to F (Score:4, Informative)
2) use the firefox password manager (it is built in)
3) try adding a bookmark to yahoo, removing the search criteria from the url and replacing it with %s. then assign it a keyword.
that way you can just type.. 'yahoo searchciteriahere'
4) groups of tabs. add the group of tabs to a bookmark folder, right click the folder and open all tabs
5) try the adblock firefox extention. it is on the extention website.
there has never been a better time to try it IMO
Re:Need help to migrate from IE (SlimBrowser) to F (Score:3, Informative)
http://texturizer.net/firefox/extensions/#exter
For a while, I had a Firefox shortcut in my Startup folder. Since I always log in and open Firefox, I figured why not. With this extension, I could open other apps right from the Firefox toolbar.
To open a folder, you have to open Windows Explorer with a location as an argument.
It's easier than it sounds. Really.
Re:Need help to migrate from IE (SlimBrowser) to F (Score:5, Informative)
1 Ability of running any Windows shortcut or folder within the browser or explorer.
Firefox is a web browser. Are your computer running a web server, and if not, why would you expect your web browser to be able to 'explore' your folders in the browser view?. Try "Open file". There, you can "explore" and "open" at your leisure.
2) Autologin of websites (form filling-username, pass)
Security hazard. I don't care how much you think this is a great idea; it isn't. Sometimes us developers must protect you against yourselves.
3) Make your own search engines (like if I want to add yahoo maps and all i type is the destination)
I just put all the search engines I like in a HTML-page that is my default page. What you want is trivial to do in Opera BTW, and probably in FF too (after all, there's always the source, worst case).
4) "Groups" of websites that open in tabs at the same time
This is standard. Are you trolling? Open bookmark folder, click "Open in tabs". What a waste of time.
5) In-line Flash/Advertsing blocks
Plugin: Adblock
Re:Need help to migrate from IE (SlimBrowser) to F (Score:4, Informative)
3. see here [mozdev.org] for documentation on how to make your own Mozilla search plugins.
5. Besides the already-mentioned Adblock plugin, use Flash Click To View to replace flash with a button you can 'click to view'.
Clarification (Score:3, Informative)
Now there's good news and bad news about it. The bad news is, it hasn't been updated for v0.9. The good news is, it still works with 0.9 flawlessly (i'm running it right now). The only problem is it won't show up in your extensions menu, so disabling or removing it could be a pain.
Now I say could be, because if you grab a little gadget known as Show Old Extensions [pikey.me.uk], FlashBlock and any other pre-0.9 extensions you have installed will appear in
Re:Need help to migrate from IE (SlimBrowser) to F (Score:5, Informative)
You absolutely do not want this. The mingling of file browser and web browser are what cause a huge number of IE security holes.
You could probably just set up a helper or something, but you don't want to. Really. Mozilla is not a file manager.
2) Autologin of websites (form filling-username, pass)
Exists, and I've seen it, but I don't know what plugin to use. IIRC Mozilla has this built-in.
3) Make your own search engines (like if I want to add yahoo maps and all i type is the destination)
Firefox rocks at this. Do a search, bookmark it, and replace the query text in the address field in the bookmark's properties with "%s", and then give it an alias (say, "gg"). If I did this with a Google search, I can just type "gg foobar" to Google for "foobar". I have imdb, google, and tons of other databases usable through Firefox directly. Absolutely wonderful.
4) "Groups" of websites that open in tabs at the same time
Create a folder in your bookmarks, and choose the menu item "open in tabs" for that folder under the Boomarks menu in Firefox.
5) In-line Flash/Advertsing blocks (I noticed one of Achilles' Heels of FF is that it eats
cpu like crazy when flash is used on the page)
You want Click to View [mozdev.org].
Mozilla OK this time (Score:4, Insightful)
To be more secure we need an OS that prevents the browser from executing unauthorized code and prevents the browser from accesing sensitive information or applications on our systems. The browser should not be allowed to be the only layer of security.
One way would be to swich to some Linux, using a distro that make use of the SELinux stuff enables mandatory access control and set up a good security policy.
Re:But... (Score:5, Informative)
get a notarised statement (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't do online banking but if I did and that was part of it,forcing me to *use* grade c products, and having to *trust* grade c products, at a place that HAS to consider "security threats" over almost anything else, I would have long ago called up and kvetched about it or sent a missive along the lines I have outlined.
Think about it, how many people would trust a bank if it had no doors, it was running in the seediest section of town with obvious scoundrels hanging around the entrance, the vault was open,no security guard in sight, and if they forced you to come in blindfolded, turn over the keys to your car to one of the characters hanging around the opening where no door is, and to trust whatever happened then to you and your money as you came and went? No one would put up with that, but in the cyberworld, that is *exactly* what is going on all the time with these insecure out of the box office/internet "products" from that convicted monopolist corporation and with their co-opted and faked out business "partners". You would THINK after the 983rd time something like this happened that they would have bought a clue or two. And it just gets worse, all the time, it hasn't gotten any better, just the exploits get better, and paying for the privelege of getting exploited costs more.
Good idea for a geek cyberbank, BTW, that runs only better quality open source, and refuses entrance with explorer browser, and gives a helpful page where to get the alternatives. Niche market, but I bet it would get decent business over-all.