Microsoft has now confirmed that they started working on Internet Explorer 9 and it seems that they have big plans for this browser. Three demo videos have been released by Channel 9 that show some of the Internet Explorer 9 developers showcasing some of the improvements that they already build into the web browser. The Sunspider Javascript benchmark comparison looks very interesting as the new Internet Explorer 9 JavaScript engine closes the gap to Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 to about 100 ms.

Standards and Interoperability

JavaScript performance:

Surfing On The GPU

The most interesting changes that have been announced so far:

• New Javascript engine
• GPU enhanced page rendering
• Better interoperability and web standards support

It is interesting that Microsoft is giving the public a chance to view the progress that they are making. They already changed their strategy during the Windows 7 development phase where they created blogs, videos and other means of showcasing the development progress and features to the public.

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System administrators can download the kit from the website which also provides access to an online help and other documentation to aid these administrators customize the Internet Explorer experience. To outline some of the customization that is possible with the Internet Explorer Administration Kit 8:

Administrators can use it to install custom components, select the language, search provider, homepage and support urls, install favorites or feeds, configure connection settings, change privacy, security and proxy settings or customize other features of Internet Explorer.

Detailed information about the various options are provided on the What Internet Explorer Administration Kit Can Do For You page on the Microsoft website. Microsoft has also released documentation and a IEAK 8 deployment guide to get administrators and technicians started.

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Additional differences become apparent in the web browser plugin development and availability. Some browsers offer thousands of plugins while others only a handful. Plugins can be a very effective way of adding additional protection to the web browser. This article is about the top 5 security plugins for the most popular web browsers. If you know of a plugin that is missing in the list let us (and everyone else) know about it in the comments.

Mozilla Firefox

No Script – The one add-on that many security experts do not want to live without. No Script can block script execution on websites. It does so on all websites by default with the option to enable specific scripts temporarily or permanently. The add-on can prevent script based attacks (most of them are) if used correctly.

Last Pass – The password manager for Firefox. It can generate and remember secure passwords, fill out forms and even auto login the user into websites. The three important security related features are secure password generation, password storing and auto login. Secure passwords have the weakness that they are hard to remember. It is simply easier to remember 123456 than f&z_cU!;re4xZ especially if you consider that unique passwords should be used one every website. With Last Pass users get unlimited secure passwords with the need to only remember the master password. The auto login feature can be very effective against phishing attacks as it won’t work on phishing websites that use a different url than the original.

No Redirect – A versatile add-on that handles several things at once. It will reveal the destination url of short url services and prevent that Internet providers and other companies use DNS hijacks to show their (search pages). This does happen for instance with many major ISPs if the user mistypes a domain extension.

Link Extend and Web of Trust – Link Extend and Web of Trust provide a similar functionality. They provide website ratings to inform the user about potentially dangerous websites. Both display ratings in major search engines but also in a toolbar for the active page.

CS Lite – Cookie permissions on a per-site basis. Allows the user to block or allow cookies permanently or temporarily.

Backup: Febe Firefox Backup. It is always a good idea to create regular backups to be prepared when data gets corrupted or deleted. Febe is a Firefox add-on that can backup all profile data of the web browser including bookmarks, settings, extensions and passwords.

Google Chrome

Last Pass – The Last Pass password manager is also available for the Google Chrome web browser. Extension support is currently only available for dev releases of the Google browser. The functionality on the other hand is similar to that of the Firefox add-on. It is possible to generate passwords, store them and use the auto login feature.

Flash Block – This is the closest to the No Script Firefox add-on. Flash Block will only block Flash content but not other script related objects.

McAfee Site Advisor bookmarklet – There are not many Google Chrome extensions yet. Bookmarklets try to close that gap by allowing all Google Chrome users – and not only those that use a dev version – to make use of additional features. This bookmarklet will display McAfee Site Advisor ratings when executed. Comparable to Wot or Link Extend with the difference that it has to be executed manually.

Adsweep and Adblock+ – Two options to disable most advertisement that is displayed on websites. These add-ons are more about the annoying objects on websites and less about security. They can however be helpful in situations were rogue ads are displayed that spread malware.

Backup: Fav Browser – Fav Browser 2 can backup and restore all settings of Google Chrome 2, 3 or 4.

Internet Explorer

Last Pass – Did we mention that we love Last Pass? The password manager is available as a plugin for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. It offers the same functionality on all supported web browsers including password generation and secure storage of passwords.

Web of Trust or Trend Protect – Both display ratings for the active websites and websites that are listed in the major search engines (Google Search, Yahoo Search, MSN). They can be used as an indicator if a site’s potentially dangerous to visit.

IE7 Pro – A great plugin for Internet Explorer (not only 7 but also Internet Explorer 8) that offers ad blocking and many additional features. It comes closes to the No Script Firefox add-on. The ad blocker includes a Flash Blocker. Another interesting module is userscript support which can be also beneficial to security.

Backup: Fav Backup – You can use the tool to backup and restore Internet Explorer profile settings.

Only four for Internet Explorer. Do you know of additional Internet Explorer security add-ons? Let us know in the comments.

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Seven different color coded ratings are used in the browser plugin. Most important ratings are green for a safe website, red for a dangerous website and yellow which indicates undesirable and suspicious contents.

The second indicator becomes only visible on the supported search engine results pages. Every url on these pages, even the advertisements, will be rated by TrendProtect to give the user an indication of the possible dangers on these websites.

The ratings of the service are calculated by taking page and site reputation, phishing scam detection and content categories into account. It is possible to influence some values in the options of the plugin. This includes selecting categories like gambling or adult as undesirable. Another option is the addition of websites to a list of trusted websites.

TrendProtect is available for Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8 (although it is not mentioned on the page) only at this moment. TrendMicro has plans to port the plugin to the Mozilla Firefox web browser.

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The Fix IE Utility has been designed fix problems that user might encounter when running Internet Explorer. This includes startup problems and especially problems related to dll or ocx files that are needed to run Internet Explorer and its functions.

The software program will automatically register 89 different dll and ocx files that are required to run Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8. This tool could be helpful if dll or ocx errors are displayed during Internet Explorer start or while working in the web browser.

All instances of Internet Explorer need to be closed before executing the command to run the repair of Internet Explorer. Everything else should be pretty self-explanatory. The portable program will display a simple two button interface upon startup. A click on the Run Utility button will register the dll and ocx files.

Microsoft’s solution to repair Internet Explorer 7 or 8 is to download (IE7 or IE8) the web browser again.

The Fix IE Utility has been designed for The Windows Club from where it can be downloaded.

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The jump to version 2 of the web browser backup software brings support for Opera 10 and Flock 2.5 (next to the already existing support for Internet Explorer 6 to Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 2.9 to Firefox 3.6, Google Chrome 1 to Google Chrome 4, Safari 3 and 4, Opera 9 and Flock 3). This should cover the most used web browsers in the Windows operating system.

One of the great additions in FavBackup 2 is support for portable web browsers. It is now possible to select a custom location for the user profile for Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome, Safari and Flock. It is furthermore possible to select any of the identified profiles of the supported web browsers directly.

Other changes in this release are the new ribbon interface, a progress bar, different themes for the backup program, 40% less computer memory usage and minor bug fixes. The new additions make FavBackup 2 a recommended program for web browser backups, especially if multiple different web browsers are installed and used in a computing environment.

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One of the most advanced tools for that job is IEController by Matthias Withopf. The portable software program can be used to configure Internet Explorer rights that cannot be configured from within the web browser. It is an advanced users tool which lacks a help file and does not offer a lot of explanations in its interface.

It is still one of the best choices to secure Internet Explorer properly. The configuration is handled in several tabs that are displayed in the program’s interface after startup. It is for instance possible to define the features that are allowed for ActiveX applications, read access to files in the browser cache or temp folders, disallow write processes to Windows and system directories (including the Windows Registry), disallow registration and usage of browser helper objects or disable access to specific programs (like Acrobat Reader or Windows Media Player).

IEController comes with logging options (including logging wininet and winsock data) and various other options like preventing the sending of sensitive information unnoticedly over the Internet. The program for Internet Explorer can be downloaded (via Addictive Tips) from the (German) website of the project.

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It adds itself as a toolbar button which can be used to trigger the screen capturing process. It is possible to capture the visible area of the browser window or the entire website. This leads to another menu with options to edit, save, print, upload or email the captured area. It is furthermore possible to open the output directly in an external image editor.

Fireshot comes with a basic editor if the edit option has been selected. This opens the screen capture in a new window that contains a preview and buttons in an header area. It is possible to add text or images, highlight areas, add annotations or pointers to the screen capture.

Every option can be customized. The font, size, alignment and typographic elements like bold, underline or italic can be customized for example when adding text to the screen capture. It is then possible to use the same export options that are available directly from the Fireshot button.

Fireshot could be an interesting screen capture software for users who only need to take screen captures of websites. The only negative aspect is that the edit window of the free version of Fireshot blocks the web browser window. Firefox for Internet Explorer and Firefox can be downloaded from the developer’s website.

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There are various options to test a website in different versions of Internet Explorer. Some, like IETester, make it possible to install multiple versions of Internet Explorer on the same computer system. Others, like Browsershots, are online tools that can test a website in various web browsers as well.

A third possibility is now offered by Microsoft directly in the form of virtual PC images. Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8 are provided as virtual PC images. It is possible to download a virtual PC image for each web browser running under Windows XP or Internet Explorer 7 or Internet Explorer 8 images running under Windows Vista.

The Windows XP images have a size of around 600 Megabytes each while the Windows Vista images triple that size. The only limitation is an expiration date for the virtual PC images. The Windows XP images will expire in January 2010 while the Vista images will expire 120 days after their first execution. These expiration dates make the virtual PC images a less than favorable solution but its probably better than not testing the various editions of Internet Explorer at all.

Users who are interested in the virtual PC images can download them directly from the Microsoft website.

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The web browsers of the test were: Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3.5.2 with and without adblock add-on, Google Chrome 2, Opera 9.64, 10.0b3 and Safari 4. Three laptops were used in the test. Two entry level Gateway laptops with AMD and Intel cpus and the ASUS Eee PC 1005HA netbook.

Gateway NV52

Gateway NV58

Asus EEE PC 1005HA

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 is the web browser that drains the least amount of battery on the two entry level laptops. Most other web browsers with the exception of Safari come close to that results, especially Firefox with the adblock add-on. The benefit of the adblock add-on suggests that web advertisement does have an impact on battery usage. Safari 4 is the only web browser in the test that performed worst in all three tests.

Google Chrome 2 was first in the netbook test with all other web browsers close by except for Safari which completely drained the battery of the netbook more than two hours earlier than the other web browsers.

Even if the test needs to be replicated with a larger website sample size it seems to indicate that laptop users are better off without the Safari web browser. Internet Explorer 8, Mozilla Firefox with adblock and Google Chrome were the best performing web browsers in the test.

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In this article we will deal with installing Internet Explorer with the help of Wine and IEs4Linux. The installation is not difficult and in the end you should have ever possible browser available to you for all your testing needs. Even though this installation will require the use of WINE you will not have to go through any complicated WINE set up. In fact the most difficult aspect of this setup is downloading and running a script that will take care of the most difficult part of the installation for you.

Preparing for the installation

The first thing you need to do is to make sure you have the right repositories in your /etc/apt/sources.list file. Open that file up and check to make sure the Universe repositories are uncommented. If you are using Januty (9.04) you will see the lines:

deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty universe
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty universe
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty-updates universe
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty-updates universe

Makes sure none of those lines begin with the “#” character. If they do, remove that character and save the file. If you had to make changes to the file you will need to update apt with the command:

sudo apt-get update

Now you are ready to begin the installation.

Installing

The first thing you need to do is install a couple of applications with the help of apt-get. From within the same terminal you checked the sources.list file issue the following command:

sudo apt-get install wine cabextract

Once this has finished you need to download the IEs4Linux installation script from this site. When that file is downloaded go back to your terminal window and change to the directory that file was downloaded to and issue the following commands:

tar xvzf ies4linux-XXX.tar.gz

Where XXX is the release number.

cd ies4linux-XXX

Where XXX is the release number.

You are now inside the directory that contains everything necessy to install three different versions of Internet Explorer for Linux (5, 5.5, and 6 Sorry – no 7 or 8). Issue the following command:

./ies4linux

Figure 1

The above command will open the GUI installation tool (see Figure 1). From within this tool you can select which version(s) of Internet Explorer to install, the language, if you want Flash Player 9 installed, and where you want icons to be placed.

You can also click the advanced button for more options. Within the advanced section you can select to install IE7 which is very much in beta. I attempted this installation only to have python segfault. There is a hack for this but it’s not really worth the trouble. The problem is that IE7 is not yet supported by WINE. As soon as it is IEs4Linux will add this support.

Once you have made those choices click OK and the installation will proceed.

Figure 2

When the installation begins a new window will pop open (see Figure 2). The last line in this window instructs you how to run Internet Explorer. In my case the executable is located in /home/jlwallen/bin/ie6. There is a rather odd behavior I have found with this installation. Upon completion of IEs4Linux you may not be able to run Internet Explorer without the help of sudo. Do not do this. Before you run the ~/bin/ie6 command issue the following command:

sudo chown -R USER.USER ~/.ies4linux

Where USER is the user name you log in with (in my case jlwallen)

The problem is that some of the files/directories in the ~/.ies4linux directories are installed as the root user. Your standard user will not be able to issue those command or use those files. So changing the ownership of the files and directories within the ~/.ies4linux directory solves that issue.

Final thoughts

Having IE 6 on your machine will not solve a lot of problems. But having the ability to test features of your web sites with as many browsers as possible is always good. Hopefully IE 7 will be supported soon which will bring even more validity to the IEs4Linux project.

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Some plugins and add-ons help against these types of exploits and attacks. Notable is for instance the NoScript add-on for the Firefox web browser which disables script unless the user has explicitly given permission. The problem with these exploits on the other hand is that they might appear on trusted websites in the form of manipulated banner advertisement.

F-Secure Exploit Shield could be the solution against most of these attacks and exploits. The security software program, which is currently offered as a beta version for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, uses a vulnerability shield and proactive measures to protect computer systems against these forms of attacks,

Vulnerability shields offer patch equivalent protection. They are usually hotfixes created by F-Secure employees that protect against known web browser exploits. The proactive shield on the other hand uses heuristics to identify and block unknown or unidentified web browser exploits.

F-Secure Exploit Shield can be downloaded from the Labs section of the company’s website. It is currently compatible with 32-bit editions of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 and protects Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer web browsers on these computer systems.

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The test analyzed the web browser’s phishing protection. Both Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3 (that is Firefox 3.0.11 and not Firefox 3.5) managed to score an average block rate of 83% and 80% during the 14 days of testing. Opera 10 managed to block 54%, Google Chrome 26% and Safari a whopping 2%.

The average phishing URL catch rate for browsers over the entire 14 day test period ranged from 2% for Safari 4 to 83% for Windows Internet Explorer 8. Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3 were the most consistent in the high level of protection they offered. Statistically, Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3 had a two-way tie for first, given the margin of error of 3.96%. Opera 10 beta came in third due to inconsistent protection during the test. Chrome 2 was consistent, albeit at a much lower rate of protection, and Safari offered minimal overall protection.

The test analyzed the average response time to phishing attacks. Internet Explorer 8 finished first with an average response time of about 5 hours closely followed by Firefox and Google Chrome. It took Opera about double the time and Safari more than 10 times to protect against emerging phishing attacks.

Many users will criticize the test because it has been sponsored by Microsoft. This alone should not be reason to dismiss the findings as inaccurate. There have however been accusations of manipulated reports by NSS Labs in the past which are for example mentioned in a blog post at the Opera website. Some of the points of criticism like mixing beta and final versions or limiting test urls to a very low number are also valid points in the new report.

Even critics have to admit on the other hand that Microsoft has made progress with Internet Explorer 8. The web browser might still not be as fast as the others but it is definitely a solid web browser which could be the most secure web browser when it comes to protecting users from phishing attacks. It has to be noted that the test is only considering the automated protection.

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This security update is being released out of band in conjunction with Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-035, which describes vulnerabilities in those components and controls that have been developed using vulnerable versions of the Microsoft Active Template Library (ATL). As a defense-in-depth measure, this Internet Explorer security update helps mitigate known attack vectors within Internet Explorer for those components and controls that have been developed with vulnerable versions of ATL as described in Microsoft Security Advisory (973882) and Microsoft Security Bulletin MS09-035.

This security update also resolves three privately reported vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer. These vulnerabilities could allow remote code execution if a user views a specially crafted Web page using Internet Explorer. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.

This security update is rated Critical for Internet Explorer 5.01 and Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1, running on supported editions of Microsoft Windows 2000; Critical for Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7, and Internet Explorer 8 running on supported editions of Windows XP; Critical for Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8 running on supported editions of Windows Vista; Moderate for Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7, and Internet Explorer 8 running on supported editions of Windows Server 2003; and Moderate for Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8 running on supported editions of Windows Server 2008. For more information, see the subsection, Affected and Non-Affected Software, in this section.

Windows users should make sure to download the security update as soon as possible. It is available at the usual sources including automatic updates, Windows Update or Microsoft Update.

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Microsoft’s new proposal could ultimately remove Windows 7E from the operating system landscape. They suggest to provide a ballot screen after installation giving users the choice to install a web browser of their choice from a selection of possible alternatives including Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera and Safari.

A mockup screen was posted that visualizes how the ballot screen could look like (please note that the browserballot.eu website is currently not working)

Additional blank spots are reserved on the right side of the screen that could be filled with additional web browsers if requested or needed. It should be noted that this new proposal would mean that Internet Explorer would be installed as the default web browser during installation of the operating system and that the ballot screen would be displayed afterwards to give the user the option to install another web browser and make it the default browser on the computer system.

Microsoft’s proposal is available at the Microsoft Presspass website.

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Microsoft not only lists the installed toolbars, plugins and add-ons but also their loading time. This loading time is added on top of the normal tab loading time in Internet Explorer. It is now easy with the tools at hand to analyze the toolbars and plugins that increase the tab and window loading time in Internet Explorer the most and find ways to deal with the situation.

A right-click on any toolbar or plugin in the add-on’s menu provides the option to disable it right away. Internet Explorer 8 will automatically search for related add-ons giving the user the choice to disable them as well. The loading time of some plugins and toolbars is not displayed in the manager. Disabling these can also have a positive effect on the tab and window loading times in Internet Explorer.

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There are a few options that European customers have to get a web browser. They can download one from another computer system, start the computer from a Live CD and move a web browser to a removable device, buy a computer magazine that comes with a web browser or order Internet Explorer right from Microsoft.

Amazon customers can add Internet Explorer 8 to their shopping cart for about 4 Euro. It is also possible to buy Internet Explorer directly from Microsoft for roughly the same price. Customers who want to order Internet Explorer directly from Microsoft can visit the website that is offering information about Windows 7 in Europe and options to either download or order Internet Explorer 8.

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FavBackup is a web browser backup and restore application for the Windows operating system that supports the five popular web browsers Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari and Google Chrome. Users can use FavBackup to backup and restore web browser settings and files.

FavBackup displays a list of options and web browsers in its interface upon startup. It should be noted that the software program is fully portable and does not require an installation. The options include creating a backup of the selected default web browser installation, of all selected web browser installations and to restore these settings again. Only one web browser can be backed up or restored at a time. It is for example possible to backup all different versions of Firefox or Google Chrome using the safe backup option. Backing up Firefox and Internet Explorer on the other hand would require two backup runs.

The difference between the backup and safe backup option is that the former only backs up the default web browser installation while the second will backup all installations of the selected web browser. FavBackup will display a list of settings and files that can be backed up after making the selection. This includes backing up bookmarks, cookies, plugins, extensions, preferences and history among other things.

One interesting aspect of the program is that it is possible to restore less data. It is for example possible to only restore bookmarks or cookies although a full browser backup has been created during the backup phase.

There are a few things that should be improved by the developer though. The first would be to provide an option to backup multiple web browsers at once. This is more comfortable than having to start the backup software multiple times to backup all installed browsers. An option to backup portable versions of the web browsers would also come in handy. Finally support for Opera 10 has to be added so that it can be backed up as well.

FavBrowser is a free portable software program for the Windows operating system that can be used to backup and restore web browsers easily.

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Users who want to test it can visit the Drupal User Experience website and start playing the first video on the page. They will notice that the cursor will start to disappear for short intervals on all tabs that are open in Firefox. Tests with other web browsers revealed that some show like Opera and Internet Explorer show the same behavior while others like the Google browser Google Chrome seems to be immune and show the cursor all the time.

The problem persists even after stopping the playback of the video in question. One solution is to close the tab that contains the website with the Flickr video which stopped the mouse cursor from disappearing in Firefox. Another solution offered by Roman was to block the Flickr video script with the Firefox add-on NoScript.

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The security vulnerability affects only Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 systems. Computer systems running Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 or Windows 7 are not affected because “the ability to pass data to this control within Internet Explorer” is restricted in these operating systems.

A successful attack will give the attacker the same user rights as the currently logged in user. Microsoft has issued a workaround for the Internet Explorer vulnerability that can be applied manually or using Microsoft Fix It.

The fastest way to patch the security vulnerability is to use the Microsoft Fix It script that will perform all the actions of the workaround automatically. The fix will basically remove support for the ActiveX Control in Internet Explorer. This should not have any impact on the web browser’s functionality according to Microsoft.

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