Already? IE7 security holes
For anyone that hasn’t been bombarded with recent marketing, Microsoft has finally released IE7 — the successor to its ancient and much-maligned Internet Explorer browser.
IE7 is being hailed as Microsoft’s trump card on the web. If you ask anyone in the know, there are better features and security in nearly any other browser, but Microsoft does have the market cornered, with IE7 set to be rolled out automatically to millions of computers via Windows Update.
IE7 vulnerabilities… already?
Unfortunately, the day after IE7’s big release, Secunia already lists two security flaws:
- Internet Explorer 7 “mhtml:” Redirection Information Disclosure
- Internet Explorer “mhtml:” Redirection Disclosure of Sensitive Information
Gladly, the vulnerabilities only rate as “Less Critical“, so it’s unlikely that they’ll bring your computer to a halt. It’s more of a possible risk of exposing your browsing habits to someone with malicious intent. It’s not that these vulnerabilities are new, per se. It’s just that Microsoft hasn’t bothered to fix them. Personally, I expect better quality control from one of the world’s largest software giants.
Despite this nasty early surprise (can we really call it that?), IE7 is definitely an improvement over all previous versions of Internet Explorer. Everyone with Windows XP Service Pack 2 should install IE7 to get rid of older, even buggier, versions of Internet Explorer.
After upgrading, you might still like to consider using a better, more frequently updated browser.
Blessings, Steve
P.S. For any eagle-eyed readers, there’s also been a recent “Highly Critical” flaw discovered in Opera. For anyone with version 9.01 or earlier, you can already update your browser (version 9.02 at the time of writing).
[Listening to Incubus, Alive at Red Rocks --- Idiot Box]
