There’s this debate right now going on about a security hole in Firefox.
I haven’t linked to any of the coverage on Linux Today, because it seems to be a Windows-only issue. Interestingly, this exploit seems to also depend on Internet Explorer, and right now security analysts can’t seem to decide which browser is more at fault.
Here’s what’s happening.
If an IE user clicks on a firefoxurl: URI, the new page is launched in Firefox. According to Steve Kerrison over at Hexus:
Thor Larholm, discoverer of the flaw, writes: “it is possible to specify arbitrary arguments to the ‘firefox.exe’ process. This is where the ‘-chrome’ command line argument comes in handy, as it allows us to specify arbitrary Javascript code which is then executed within the privileges of trusted Chrome content…”
The debate comes in with these two sides of the argument: IE lets the fake request through, but Firefox still accepts it. Which, then, is more at fault?
Well, seeing how this fault isn’t showing up on Linux, or OS X for that matter, the fault clearly lies with…
Windows, perhaps the biggest exploit of them all.
Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.
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