Comments on: Browser Vulnerabilities: Internet Explorer vs. Firefox

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 05:12:14 +0000

That’s very true Daryl, and it’s something that needs to be taken very seriously. This is something that has protected both Mac OS X and Linux the same, since they are able to focus on developing useful and productive features without worrying as much about the hackers who are trying to take advantage of every little nook and cranny.

By: Daryl

Daryl — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 14:33:14 +0000

This is the same Linux vs Windows, Open Source vs Commercial Application, Mac vs PC fecal matter we hear everyday. People are not exploiting vulnerabilities in Firefox, not because they are not there but because the user base is not large enough, why exploit a flaw that only 2% of internet users have? When the market shares are equal lets talk again.

By: SLA

SLA — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 10:19:14 +0000

â€œfor a total 284 days in 2006 (or more than nine months out of the year), exploit code for known, unpatched critical flaws in pre-IE7 versions of the browser was publicly available on the Internet. Likewise, there were at least 98 days last year in which no software fixes from Microsoft were available to fix IE flaws that criminals were actively using to steal personal and financial data from users.â€
â€œMozillaâ€™s Firefox browser â€” experienced a single period lasting just nine days last year in which exploit code for a serious security hole was posted online before Mozilla shipped a patch to remedy the problem.â€

This statistics is very useful. Now I can show it anyone, any non-tech people on my job, and they all will agree to install Firefox over IE.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 01:49:16 +0000

I wonder if some people actually use the “unknown” ones in the list. I also wonder which one has the lowest market share.

By: Mo

Mo — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 19:50:08 +0000

Ryan wrote:

Yes, the [en.wikipedia.org]

Alas only a handful that are any good!

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 17:20:06 +0000

Yes, the list of Web browsers seems endless...

By: Mo

Mo — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 04:27:09 +0000

There are so many good browsers now-a-days there really isn’t any reason for someone to to be using IE. If a person is a die hard windows user (or doesn’t know there are alternatives) they can choose from Firefox, Seamonkey, Opera, Maxthon, etc.

By: Ashley

Ashley — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 18:14:45 +0000

I’m pretty confident that this comparison was with Internet Explorer 6 because IE7 was not released until late October.
I also assume that if the comparison was made with previous versions of IE, that they’re also doing the same with previous versions of Firefox. Mozilla has stopped updating the Firefox 1.0.X line of products so any vulnerabilities found won’t be fixed as well.

Since the vulnerabilities in those previous version dont’ get fixed, it wouldn’t make sense to compare it to those. There’s always going to be vulnerabilities in previous versions- but they won’t fix it because they’ve stopped supporting it.

By: CoryC

CoryC — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 18:05:50 +0000

So does pre-IE7 include browsers that Microsoft no longer supports like IE3, IE4 or IE5? If so, that is really an unfair comparison as no software company is going to supply patches for a product forever.