Firefox: most vulnerable Windows application

A firm Bit9, who listed 12 most vulnerable applications on windows,has taken Firefox on top of the list.

The browser has earned the reputation from Mozilla patching 10 vulnerabilities which could be used to gain control, access, or execute miscellaneous code via buffer overflow, malformed URI links, javascript, documents and third party tools.

The browser is well respected throughout its open source community. Users can download add-ons, themes and many other tweaks that users can be used to adjust, modify and tweak their browser for maximum performance and appearance.

List of the top 12 vulnerable applications:

1. Mozilla Firefox
2. Adobe Flash and Adobe Acrobat
3. EMC VMware Player,Workstation and other products
4. Sun Java JDK and JRE, Sun Java Runtime Environment (JRE)
5. Apple QuickTime, Safari and iTunes
6. Symantec Norton products (all flavors 2006 to 2008)
7. Trend Micro OfficeScan
8. Citrix Products
9. Aurigma Image Uploader, Lycos FileUploader
10. Skype
11. Yahoo Assistant
12. Microsoft Windows Live (MSN) Messenger

Google : Chrome EULA Update!

We just have discussed the issues about 'chrome is having and Google has done it right!Google has changed their EULA and now its your rights on your content,finally :).

The search engine has been quick to rectify this issue, attributing the whole issue to accidental copy and paste. Under Section 11 of Google's Universal Terms of Service, Google retains a license to transmit or display content through its services, as per US copyright law. However, the section in Chrome was not updated. Mike Yang, Senior Product Counsel at Google, writes:

"[Our] license is limited to providing the service. In Gmail, for example, the terms specifically disclaim our ownership right to Gmail content. So for Google Chrome, only the first sentence of Section 11 should have applied. We're sorry we overlooked this, but we've fixed it now..."

The updated EULA now reads:

"You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services." And, yes, these terms are retroactive."

Google Chrome - reasons to avoid

This is something really we should consider.I read this on neowin. Google chrome is a big thing these days.Everyone is talking about this small piece. But here users have submitted the flaws and vulnerability in this browser. It talks about what the users must keep in mind before use it because just the name of google. Google has released the thing without the patch for the problems.

Neowin said,

"The first, is the popular "carpet bomb" vulnerability that still exists within Chrome, as pointed out on our forums by our member matessim. This vulnerability allows malicious websites to drive by download and execute programs on your machine. Our visitors may remember the uproar that this same vulnerability caused for Safari users, and that Apple patched the carpet-bombing issue with Safari v3.1.2. Chrome is vulnerable to this exploit because it is based on the same engine, WebKit 525.13, and Google did not patch or update the engine before releasing the software.

The other, and less technical, problem with Chrome exists in its EULA. More specifically, the point that would seem to give Google rights to anything you post on the Internet while using their browser, mostly in conjunction with the promotion of its services."

As the google EULA says,

"By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any content which you submit, post or display on or through, the services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the services and may be revoked for certain services as defined in the additional terms of those services."

Which should not be in some browser which is an Open Source piece and expected to be a good software from a reputed company. I mean what google wants to prove?

So please think before you use it without the patch released and about your information sharing with google :).

Google launches new browser!

Google is launching an open source web browser to compete with Internet Explorer and Firefox.

The browser is designed to be lightweight and fast, and to cope with the next generation of web applications that rely on graphics and multimedia. Called Chrome, it will launch as a beta for Windows machines in 100 countries, with Mac and Linux versions to come.

"We realized... we needed to completely rethink the browser," said in a blog post by Google.

The new browser will help Google take advantage of developments it is pushing online in rich web applications that are challenging traditional desktop programs.

Google has a suite of web apps, such as Documents, Picasa and Maps which offer functionality that is beginning to replace offline software.

Is this will be a successful browser, because there are many of them now rocking the market. Firefox,Safari and IE will face a tough competition?Is this a way to kill all other companies or so, because google is entering in everything on the internet now.May be this is helpful to growing technology,but may be it can make monopoly or something like that.Lets hope a better Open source thing from google.

BBC News

10 must have addons for Firefox 3

"Shall i tell you a secret? Firefox 3 is officially released. "

Well if I am to tell you that then for sure i would recieve 3 million thrashes around the net. FireFox 3 is on a roller coaster ride with already 3 million downloads on its very first day of release. Isnt that great, I love it, everything open source. The best there was, the best there is and the best there sure will be.

Well it is no secret that Firefox 3 is release at least Techlads can help you how to gear up with useful Firefox 3 addons.
Here's a must have list.

gmail Notifier : Notifies you about new mail you receive with little snippets and counts.

firebug : A must have for web developers.

yoono : I would call it a bookmark king.

noscript : Control all those nuisance scripts at your finger tips.

fasterfox : Boost your already speedy firefox with more raw speed.

adblock Plus : Stupid ads beware - here i come.

fast Dial : Thumbnails like opera. How much can you ask.

pDF Download : Control Pdf. Decide whether you wanna view or download those Pdfs.

uRL Fixer : Automatically correct those typing mistakes while you type the urls.

webMail Notifier : If you thought gmail notifier was cool try this one.

Hope this helps you. Moreover if you find any cool addons that you liked please free to mention it here. Enough is enough and its time for a change. Lets go for open source.

Don't use safari on windows: Research says

We all know about safari on windows since the last release of it. Many articles has been written on that and apple has done patches also. But still something remains :). Read this, and you will surely not use safari on windows.

A researcher has created a proof-of-concept site that graphically demonstrates the risk Windows users face when using Apple's Safari browser. Microsoft's security team already warned that a "blended threat" was so serious that Windows users should curtail their use of Safari until a security patch is available. Blog post from researcher Liu Die Yu makes it clear the warning was by no means overstated.

Clicking on this link with Safari using default settings automatically downloads a booby-trapped file onto a Windows user's desktop with no prompting. The next time the user opens Internet Explorer, the force-fed file automatically causes the notepad.exe application to launch and open a non-existent file. Of course, miscreants could choose far more nefarious code.

When informed that its browser downloads files with no prompting, Apple said it may get around to changing this behavior at some point. In other words, this is no big deal from a security perspective, so let's all move on.

The Register

Firefox tweaking for Broadband

By default, Firefox is optimized for dial up connection. You can change the browser settings so that it can be used to browse with DSL or cable or other broadband links. In order to change the settings, first you need to edit config file. Type about:config in the address bar and press enter. Then enter network.http in the filter field and enter the following changes.

1. Double click on ‘network.http.pipelining’ and set the value to true.
2. Double click on 'network.http.pipelining.maxrequests’ and in the dialog box enter a higher value than the default value 4. 15 is an ideal value.
3. Double click on ‘network.http.proxy.pipelining’ and set the value to true.
4. Right click on the page and select New->Integer. Enter nglayout.initialpaint.delay and then click ok. Set the integer value of this to 0 and click ok.
   

From NirmalTV

Firefox 3 RC1 is available

Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1 is available in more than 45 languages as a public preview release intended for developer testing and community feedback.

More Secure:

* One-click site info: Click the site favicon in the location bar to see who owns the site and to check if your connection is protected from eavesdropping. Identity verification is prominently displayed and easier to understand. When a site uses Extended Validation (EV) SSL certificates, the site favicon button will turn green and show the name of the company you're connected to.

* Malware Protection: malware protection warns users when they arrive at sites which are known to install viruses, spyware, trojans or other malware.

* New Web Forgery Protection page: the content of pages suspected as web forgeries is no longer shown.

* New SSL error pages: clearer and stricter error pages are used when Firefox encounters an invalid SSL certificate.

* Add-ons and Plugin version check: Firefox now automatically checks add-on and plugin versions and will disable older, insecure versions.

* Secure add-on updates: to improve add-on update security, add-ons that provide updates in an insecure manner will be disabled.

* Anti-virus integration: Firefox will inform anti-virus software when downloading executables.

* Vista Parental Controls: Firefox now respects the Vista system-wide parental control setting for disabling file downloads.

* Effective top-level domain (eTLD) service better restricts cookies and other restricted content to a single domain.

* Better protection against cross-site JSON data leaks.

For more new features and changes check the releasenotes. Download your favourite version.

ReleaseNotes | Firefox 3.0 RC1 Windows US English (7.15 MB)
Firefox 3.0 RC1 Linux US English (8.65 MB)

Must needed Firefox addons

Its clear that Firefox has taken on IE by far. The strength of firefox not only lies in it performance and ease of use but also in the ocean of addons that it provides. Here are list of firefox addons that you must have.

noScript

NoScript can be described as a firewall for your Firefox. However much like a firewall, NoScript is going to require some configuration as you go. The extension blocks Java Script, Java and other executable content except from trusted domains you allow. With NoScript enabled, until you allow mozilla.com the green download box won’t even appear. NoScript keeps an icon in your status bar which will inform you about the current domain (site/page) you are on.

FasterFox

The Fasterfox add-on for Firefox speeds up your browser by utilizing a series of network and performance tweaks. This effective use of idle bandwidth speeds things up tremendously. For more advanced users, detailed cache and connection settings can be tweaked to your liking.

Gmail Manager

Have you ever wanted to check multiple email accounts for messages at once? If so then Gmail Manager is for you.

This useful extension attachs a small icon to the status bar that displays your Gmail address and a small image that shows how many messages you've got in that account. It's easy to manage your email accounts with a few clicks. You have to enter your log in details for each account though so it's not the most secure concept for privacy freaks.

GM works away in the background for most of the time and displays no annoying pop-up messages with is a good or bad thing depending on your views.

Firebug

All I can say about firebug is - A must have that no Web developer should do without. I’m serious - you need Firebug. Short and sweet.

Download here

• noScript
• FasterFox
• Gmail Manager
• Firebug
  

Firefox extension: 'Read it Later'

Read it Later is a handy Firefox extension that enables you save links to interesting websites that you have come across, without littering your bookmarks with nonessential items. The program offers two new toolbar buttons and a right-click option to your Firefox toolbar, which can be used to quickly add the current page or link to your Read it Later collection and to browse your saved page links. Your Read it Later items are stored in a designated bookmark folder so they are kept separate from your regular bookmarks. In addition to the bookmark features, the program also integrates with a wide variety of social networking sites and allows you to share interesting content with your online communities.

Opera v9.27

Opera is a super fast and free Web browser,designed to make your life easier! Why Opera? Safe, secure, powerful and fully customizable, the Opera Web browser is faster and more secure than other browsers available on the market. Opera delivers robust security and a far-richer feature set than any other Web browser and it's free.

Whether you're going to work, working from home, developing Web sites, or just looking for a quick, solid browser that can help you quickly access the Internet, the free Opera Web browser delivers a superior Internet experience for every aspect of your online life, with lots of extra tech tools for power users! Opera 9.2 is free to download.

Opera

FireFox 3 beta 5 released!

Firefox 3 is based on the Gecko 1.9 Web rendering platform, which has been under development for the past 32 months. Building on the previous release, Gecko 1.9 has more than 12,000 updates including some major re-architecting to provide improved performance, stability, rendering correctness, and code simplification and sustainability. Firefox 3 has been built on top of this new platform resulting in a more secure, easier to use, more personal product with a lot more under the hood to offer website and Firefox add-on developers.

Firefox 3 Beta 5 includes more than 750 changes from the previous beta, improving stability and web compatibility, providing platform and user interface enhancements, and resulting in the fastest Firefox ever. Many of these improvements were based on community feedback from the previous beta.

Download | Release Notes

Firefox 3, alpha 8 released

Gran Paradiso Alpha 8 is an early developer milestone for Firefox 3 and the next generation of Mozilla’s layout engine, Gecko 1.9. Gran Paradiso Alpha 8 is being made available for testing purposes only, and is intended for web application developers and our testing community.

Some of the changes included with Gran Paradiso Alpha 8 are:

* Basic and unpolished UI for starring and tagging pages has been added, as well as a richer Location Bar autocomplete algorithm that matches against page title (see Places UI Plan for more details)
* Prompt for remembering passwords is no longer a modal dialog
* Built in malware protection (which you can test here)
* Basic and unpolished UI for indicating richer website identity information has been added
* Support for web-based protocol handlers, though it doesn’t work in all situations (see bug 394483).
* A new Applications preference panel for configuring handlers for various content types (see bug 377784) has replaced the Download Actions dialog and the Feeds preference panel
* All Firefox add-ons must now use a secure method for auto-updating (see bug 378216 and this guide for more details)
* Firefox now quits properly (instead of just being killed) when Windows is shut down or restarted (see bug 333907)
* Added support for document.elementFromPoint method (see bug 199692)
* DOMWillOpenModalDialog events are no longer fired by the nsIPrompt implementation (see bug 391100)
* TYPE_PLUGIN has been removed from the Extension Manager code (see bug 392140)
* You can also see the full list of all bugs fixed since Gran Paradiso Alpha 7

Gran Paradiso 1.9 Alpha 8 contains the following notable changes:

* Basic and unpolished UI for starring and tagging pages has been added, as well as a richer Location Bar autocomplete algorithm that matches against page title (see Places UI Plan for more details)
* Prompt for remembering passwords is no longer a modal dialog
* Built in malware protection (which you can test here)
* Basic and unpolished UI for indicating richer website identity information has been added
* Support for web-based protocol handlers, though it doesn't work in all situations (see bug 394483).
* A new Applications preference panel for configuring handlers for various content types (see bug 377784) has replaced the Download Actions dialog and the Feeds preference panel
* All Firefox add-ons must now use a secure method for auto-updating (see bug 378216 and this guide for more details)
* Firefox now quits properly (instead of just being killed) when Windows is shut down or restarted (see bug 333907)
* Added support for document.elementFromPoint method (see bug 199692)
* DOMWillOpenModalDialog events are no longer fired by the nsIPrompt implementation (see bug 391100)
* TYPE_PLUGIN has been removed from the Extension Manager code (see bug 392140)
* You can also see the full list of all bugs fixed since Gran Paradiso Alpha 7

Some of the changes in Alpha versions of Gecko 1.9 affect the web and platform compatibility of Gran Paradiso Alpha 8. For detailed information about changes in Gecko 1.9 and Gran Paradiso, please read these pages:

Gecko 1.9 Changes affecting websites
Firefox 3 for developers

Gran Paradiso Alpha 8 is available for the following platforms:

Microsoft Windows 2000 or later
Mac OS X 10.4 or later
Linux

TeaShark - full web browsing on your mobile!

TeaShark gives you full web browsing on your mobile phone with superb usability and performance. It renders web pages the same way as desktop browsers. No more 'mobile web', your favourite sites are the same on your phone and the desktop.

Features:

-TeaShark renders web pages the same way as desktop browsers. It's no more mobile web with hardly any content. Your favorite sites are the same on your phone and the desktop.

-There's an intelligent mouse for easy navigation. The cursor jumps to the next link to click, saving you the trouble. Navigate as fast or slow as you need with page up and down, left and right shortcuts. Jump to content: the display snaps to the text you're reading.

-TeaShark has unique 2-level zooming. The first level is for fine scrolling with reading capabilities, while the second is for quick jumping from section to section. You'll never be lost on the page.

-Go sideways for a more natural feel. TeaShark can rotate the page 90 degrees to landscape mode.

-Tabs is a must for any browser. TeaShark has it. You can open a link in a tab and access it the same way as you would access your browsing history. You can easily slide back and forth, up and down. TeaShark also remembers your last session and when you start it up again, your browsing and tab history is there as you left it the last time.

Check much more @ TeaShark.com

Flaws in Safari browser for Windows

We had just a discussion on this that its not as good and FF3 and stick to FF3 is better, this is what i found today.

An Argentinian security researcher has discovered two flaws in Apple's Safari for Windows browser. Juan Pablo Lopez Yacubian said the vulnerabilities could allow hackers to remotely take control of a victim's computer.

He described the most serious flaw as a vulnerability in the Safari 3.1 browser for Windows which allows a hacker to “falsify the web address and enter another page or content".

This essentially means that even though you see a trusted URL in the browser address bar, the web page could be displaying unauthorized content that could put your PC at risk.

webUser.co.uk

Release Update: Firefox 2.0.0.13

Release Date: March 25, 2008

Security Update: The following security issues were fixed.

Changelog:

MFSA 2008-19 XUL popup spoofing variant (cross-tab popups)
MFSA 2008-18 Java socket connection to any local port via LiveConnect
MFSA 2008-17 Privacy issue with SSL Client Authentication
MFSA 2008-16 HTTP Referrer spoofing with malformed URLs
MFSA 2008-15 Crashes with evidence of memory corruption (rv:1.8.1.13)
MFSA 2008-14 JavaScript privilege escalation and arbitrary code execution

Download FireFox

Quick review: Firefox 3 beta 4 Vs Safari

Both just launched. Both are fast. both are having cool UI. but this is what i got on little testing.

Firefox 3 beta 4

-Good memory handling. now uses less memory then FF 2.
-Browsing is faster then before. Loading time is better now.
-With more number of tabs, memory usage will be in limit. not increasing to exsessive.
-Main problem is only two addons working right now : stumbler and noScript :(
-Better then FF2 in speed,memory usage and UI.

Safari 3.1 final

-Good UI but less configurable compared to Firefox. -Site loading time is very fast. -Initially starts with low memory but gradually reaches at top memory usage (say 160
to 180 mb) with more number of tabs same as Firefox 2.

Both support bookmark/history searching of URLs while typing in address bar.
Loading time is fast in both but safari uses more memory gradually.
So, in final, use Firefox 3 beta or wait for final Firefox.Don't go on safari.

Safari 3.1 Final

Experience the web, Apple style, with Safari: the fastest, easiest-to-use web browser in the world. With its simple, elegant interface, Safari gets out of your way and lets you enjoy the web, up to 2 times faster than Internet Explorer. The fastest web browser on any platform, Safari loads pages up to 2 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and up to 1.6 times faster than Firefox 2. And it executes javascript up to 2.8 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and up to 1.6 times faster than Firefox 2. What does all that mean for you? Less time loading pages and more time enjoying them.

Safari Home

Firefox 3, Beta 4

Firefox 3 Beta 4 is now available for download. This is the twelfth developer milestone focused on testing the core functionality provided by many new features and changes to the platform scheduled for Firefox 3.

New features and changes in this milestone that require feedback include:

• Improvements to the user interface: better search support in the Download Manager, ability to zoom entire page or just the text, continuing look and feel improvements on Windows Vista, Windows XP, Mac OS X and Linux.
• Richer personalization through: location bar that uses an algorithm based on site visit recency and frequency (called “frecency”) to provide better matches against your history and bookmarks for URLs and page titles, as well as an adaptive learning algorithm which tunes itself to your browsing habits.
• Improved platform features such as: support for HTML5’s window.postMessage and window.messageEvent, javascript 1.8 improvements, and offline data storage for web applications.
• Performance improvements: changes to our javascript engine as well as profile guided optimization resulted in significant gains over previous releases in the popular SunSpider test from Apple, web applications like Google Mail and Zoho Office run much faster, and continued improvements to memory usage drastically reduce the amount of memory consumed over long web browsing sessions.

Download FireFox 3,Beta 4

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 - Download & Features Revealed

Microsoft has put in place the preparations for Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 ready for Mix 08.
A full features page has been revealed which lists the following additions to Internet Explorer:

• Activities
• WebSlices
• Favorites Bar
• Automatic Crash Recovery
• Improved Phishing Filter

Activities allow users to lookup/send information in a right-click contextual menu, such as retrieving an address map from Windows Live Maps, submitting a story to Digg, sharing a page on Facebook etc. WebSlices allows users to crop a specific area section of a site and bookmark it. Improvements have been made to the phishing filter which continues to block known Phishing sites and now blocks sites known to contain malicious software that could harm users’ computer or steal their information.

Perhaps one of the best new features is Automatic Crash Recovery which recovers your tabs if your browser crashes. It is widely expected that Microsoft will release the first beta of Internet Explorer 8 at this years Mix 08 .

Download: IE 8 beta
More @ microsoft.com