Firefox vs Internet Explorer
<img src='http://www.mozilla.org/images/product-firefox.png' style='margin:5px;' align='left'>According to the most recent update to security-firm Symantec's biannual Internet Security Threat Report, the last six months saw a significant uptick in the number of security vulnerabilities found in web browsers. Leading the way was Firefox, with 47 bugs discovered.
Researchers and hackers discovered 38 vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer, 12 in Safari, and seven in Opera.
According to the most recent update to security-firm Symantec's biannual Internet Security Threat Report, the last six months saw a significant uptick in the number of security vulnerabilities found in web browsers. Leading the way was Firefox, with 47 bugs discovered. Researchers and hackers discovered 38 vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer, 12 in Safari, and seven in Opera.
The numbers cover a six-month period from January 1 through June 30, 2006. Symantec says its data comes from over 40,000 sensors the company has deployed around the world as well as its database of vulnerabilities.
In addition to leading the pack in sheer number of vulnerabilities, Firefox also showed the greatest increase in number, as the popular open-source browser had only logged 17 during the previous reporting period. IE saw an increase of just over 50 percent, from 25; Safari doubled its previous six; and Opera was the only one of the four browsers monitored that actually saw a decrease in vulnerabilities, from nine to seven.
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Mr_Cheese
SySTeM 18 years ago
which version of firefox is this, because at the moment firefox 2 is in beta and firefox 3 is in alpha, I'm guessing they'd be doing 1.5.0.7 but I thought I'd ask anyways :D
Uber0n 18 years ago
Well think about all the bugs found in IE over the years and compare with FF… Happy now? :D
ghost 18 years ago
FF is the best, 47 bugs as opposed to IE's 38, but how much people will target a browser that's used by relatively little people, and how long do you think it'll take to fix them, I'm guessing they've already started. :D
Flaming_figures 18 years ago
Im wondering what exactly they are considering bugs, and I'm sure firefox will include fixed ones in the new versions they are doing.
ghost 18 years ago
Some other info: Firefox fixed all the bugs within 1 day IE currently has 2 critical bugs which can run any program when you view the site. I'm not saying firefox is the best but I do use it. The reasons I use it are because of other features is allows, like making your own extensions. Opera, of course, is great and I do have it installed too. Any web dev needs several browsers installed.
ghost 18 years ago
Opera only 7 bugs and Firefox 47 :o. I use opera most of the time sometime's firefox for some functions that opera doesn't have.
ghost 18 years ago
Firefox's total time to fix 47 bugs: 5 hours, 17 minutes, and 54 seconds.
Internet Explorer's total time to fix 38 bugs: A very long, long time.
ghost 18 years ago
These findings mean very little to me. We dont have all the data. Also of course you will find more bugs in FF over firefox for 2 reasons. One it is way newer than IE and 2 it is open source. Any one can view the source code and easily find its flaws. So either way I will continue using FF. The only reason being is that it offers me the ability to tab web pages, faster loading times, and all kinds of plugins that can be easily added. Fire fox is made to be adapted to what the user desires.
ghost 18 years ago
when you develop like crazy you also get bugs. this actually shows how much FF is developing
ghost 18 years ago
At a quick glance, my only question is: How serious are the bugs for one browser compared to another?
Mouzi 18 years ago
To knutrainer: the new IE has tabbed windows too? Tho I don't know anything else about that new IE so it could still be quite bad.
ghost 18 years ago
hehe im so glad i use Opera, i think its a lot better than FF hides afriad of dying becuase i like opera better
ghost 18 years ago
Well one of the bugs is that you can exploit how firefox should handle extensions. For instance even tho you have set firefox so that you need to confirm that an extension is downloaded to your computer it is possible to write the code so that the extension will automaticly download and get installed on the computer, the reason is that it is possible to fool the browser to be a "trustworthy" page and therefor the extension will download automaticly. This is in version 1.5.0.7 of firefox and im sure there is a fix for it, still that is an example of how "bad" the bugs can be. The other day i went to a site which contained this type of code so it tried to automaticly download a virus to the computer disguised as an extension. I never had the option to chose if i wanted to download the extension or not, and i have set firefox so that i always should have to confirm downloads of extensions. Anyways norton dealt with that small problem. /dw0rek
ghost 18 years ago
well…as i see by this website, FireFox seems to be teh prefered browser of hackers, as in prefered to hack WITH not hack INTO, and since Hackers support it…im assuming that they'll target it less? Thena gain, im an idiot, know nothing of hacking, so just ignore this comment.