Browsers

Sophos Labs Blog: If you’re interested in computer security, you’ve probably heard of PWN2OWN. It’s a competition which has become an annual fixture at the annual CanSecWest conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. The competition gets its name because, as the CanSecWest organizers explain, “If you can execute arbitrary code (PWN) on these [laptops or mobile phones] through a previously undisclosed browser (Firefox, IE, Safari) exploit, you can go home with one (OWN).” ...

Avira TechBlog: Well, actually we expect some more updates as some security vulnerabilities have been revealed at the Pwn2Own contest during the CanSecWest security conference. Google is the first and pushes out version 10.0.648.133 – which fixes one security vulnerability within WebKit (the base of the Blackberry, Chrome and Safari webbrowsers). As usual, the update is spread via the built-in automatic update mechanism. Users can make sure to use the latest version by clicking on the tool symbol and choosing the “About Chrome” menu entry. ...

Safari just got served. At this year’s Pwn2Own conference, security firms and enthusiasts are doing their very best to discover and deploy exploits to some of the world’s most popular browsers. Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari, they’re all on the menu for conference attendees and some have definitely faired better than others. Google issued a challenge, promising $20,000 to any person or team that could crack Chrome on the conferences opening day, but the two teams scheduled to take a swing backed down. Firefox is, for the time being, still standing, and, per usual, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer was taken down without much fuss. But which browser faired the worst? That would be Apple’s Safari. A French security research firm named Vulpen managed to break into Safari running on a MacBook Air in a cool five seconds. The company noted that the Safari update issued by Apple yesterday — version 5.0.4 — fixes some of the vulnerabilities, but not all. The takedown of Safari 5.0.3 used exploits that are still available in the updated code base. Go ahead Apple detractors, have a little fun in the comments section. ...

TechSpot wrote: Microsoft this week reportedly signed off the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) build of Internet Explorer 9. The RTM build is 9.00.8112.16421.110308-0330, meaning it was compiled on March 8, 2011 at 3:30 AM, according to Windows 8 Beta. A user by the name of sp3ciali5t has managed to post an image of the IE9 about screen for this build on Twitter. It’s in Turkish, but you can still the build number: ...

Google Chrome 10 is ready for primetime and it comes with a surprising number of new features. Here are some of them: The Options dialog is now a web page that opens in a new tab. Chrome has one less modal dialog and the new Options page is better suited for netbooks. Another advantage is that each section of the Options page has a permalink that can be bookmarked. Even if Chrome doesn’t have too many customizable settings, there’s a search box that lets you quickly find an option. Try searching for “cookies” and you’ll notice that Chrome finds settings that aren’t immediately obvious. ...

cross-posted on the Official Google Blog Just three weeks ago, we kicked off the Year of the Rabbit with a speedy Chrome beta. Today, we’re excited to bring these speed improvements and more to everyone using Chrome. With today’s stable release, even your most complex web apps will run more quickly and responsively in the browser. (For the curious, this boost corresponds to a 66% improvement in JavaScript performance on the V8 benchmark suite.) We realize that speed isn’t just about pure brawn in the browser—it’s also about saving time with simple interfaces. Chrome’s new settings interface will help you get to the right settings quickly so you don’t have to dig endlessly to find a way to import your bookmarks or change your browser’s homepage. We’ve added a search box that shows you the settings you’re looking for, as you type. On top of that, you can also copy and paste a direct link into Chrome’s address bar to jump to a specific settings page. (No more long, frustrating phone conversations with your dad on where to find that specific setting in the browser!) Here’s the new settings interface in action: ...

Before IE developers held a press conference in San Francisco to unveil the RC version of IE 9 this morning, Microsoft has released the RC for download here (x86) and here (x64). As expected, the release candidate includes much improved tab functionality, from the new square-ish visual elements, and moveable tab bar elements to increase customization. It also includes features that enable a user to refuse tracking from advertisers. It also promises to fix a number of remaining bugs and minor annoyances that plagued the Beta and developer previews of the browser. The newer, more stable version of the browser needs to be pretty picture perfect if MS wants to regain its market share lost to Chrome and Firefox since IE8 started faltering. ...

Newest Opera browser features tab stacking, extensions, visual mouse gestures Oslo, Norway — December 16, 2010 Opera Software debuted the newest version of its award-winning browser today. Opera 11 combines elegant design, smart updates to some of our most popular features and new ways to customize Opera to your preferences. Download it today for Windows, Mac and Linux computers from http://www.opera.com/. What’s new Tab stacking Tab stacking is a better way to organize your open tabs. Simply drag one tab on top of another to create a stack. Here is a short video to introduce tab stacking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hqSGGk1YTI ...

In our efforts to bring you expanded, go-anywhere access to your data, we’re happy to announce that LastPass recently acquired Xmarks! Xmarks is a popular browser add-on that syncs bookmarks across all of your computers and smartphones. Just like LastPass, Xmarks can be installed for free on your browsers to give you easy access to your bookmarked sites. Xmarks now also offers a Premium version with bookmark support on your iPhone and Android, as well as advanced features and priority support. Sign up now to take advantage of the special discount with a dual-Premium subscription. ...

The Register: YouPorn nabbed in real-world privacy sting Boffins from Southern California have caught YouPorn.com and 45 other sites pilfering visitors’ surfing habits in what is believed to be the first study to measure in-the-wild exploits of a decade-old browser vulnerability. YouPorn, which fancies itself the YouTube of smut, uses JavaScript to detect whether visitors have recently browsed to PornHub.com, tube8.com and 21 other sites, according to the study. It tracked the 50,000 most popular websites and found a total of 46 other offenders, including news sites charter.net and newsmax.com, finance site morningstar.com and sports site espnf1.com. ...

Mashable: It looks like cross-browser, bookmark syncing service Xmarks won’t be going out of business after all. Just over a month after announcing that the service would be closing its doors and shutting down operations come January 2011, the company has announced that it is in the final stages of selling Xmarks to a new owner who is focused on keeping the tool running smoothly. Xmarks announced the news on its official blog, noting that exact details can’t be revealed just yet, but that the service is alive and “things are on track for a ‘new and improved’ Xmarks.” The Xmarks blog says that the Xmarks service will evolve into offering free and premium components. Details about what will be included in the premium offering are promised to come at a later date. ...

Browser Total Market Share Microsoft Internet Explorer 59.26% Firefox 22.82% Chrome 8.47% Safari 5.33% Opera 2.28% Opera Mini 0.95% Netscape 0.63% Konqueror 0.06% Flock 0.05% ACCESS NetFront 0.05% Playstation 0.03% Mozilla 0.03% Obigo 0.01% Danger Web Browser 0.00% Microsoft Pocket Internet Explorer 0.00% Blazer 0.00% WebTV 0.00% BlackBerry 0.00% ANT Galio 0.00% Lotus Notes 0.00% iCab 0.00% MaxThon 0.00%

Firefox is slipping in its development schedule; Mozilla says it won’t be able to release version 4.0 this year, and will have to delay the final version until early next year. “Completing this work is taking longer than initial estimates indicated as we track down regressions and sources of instability,” the company said in a statement. “As part of our commitment to beta users, we will not ship software before it is ready.” ...

Google Chrome 7.0.517.41 has been released to the stable and beta channels for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Updates from the previous stable release include: Hundreds of bug fixes An updated HTML5 parser File API Directory upload via input tag More information on these and other changes in Chrome 7 can be found on the Google Chrome blog. Download Chrome today! [Standalone / Offline setup here]

Microsoft’s web browser Internet Explorer was launched 15 years ago. While it had its ups and downs over the years – version 6 was plagued by countless security issues, which made it one of the most hated browsers around – it’s still the most popular browser in the world, with the last couple of versions improving dramatically on their troubled predecessor. The first version of the browser, Internet Explorer 1, debuted on August 16, 1995. It was based on Mosaic, a web browser Microsoft had licensed from a company called Spyglass Inc. Starting with version 3.0, Microsoft started bundling Internet Explorer with Windows, increasing its market share dramatically and ultimately squeezing once dominant browser Netscape Navigator out of the market completely. ...