Again…. this article referring to an exploit related to the cross platform plugin capability in firefox, is a GOOD reminder to be cautious when looking at potential plugins to install for mozilla firefox. In fact, the advice is usually do NOT install software (including plugins) from untrusted sources. By all means, please investigate any piece of software before downloading and installing. (And please don’t take just the software makers word for it…. ie. “my toolbar is really cool and makes firefox work better” does not equal something you can now trust and install.)
Category: Mac Software
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Firefox 1.5.0.5 out and be cautious with extensions…
Well, let’s start with the extensions first. Like ANY software, you should be cautious installing something from an untrusted source. If you think an extension looks neat and cool – look for reviews and third party information before installing it. That much said…. never install an extension that comes attached as an unexpected email…. Apparently, just that has been happening a password stealing trojan has been showing up as an email attachment that appears to be a firefox extension. OK – quick review – what’s the weakest link in computer security (grab mirror and look….) Now… Mozilla has also released some security updates for Firefox….
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Adobe Acrobat reader update
On the heels of yesterdays massive update day from Microsoft, Adobe has released an update for the free Adobe Reader. The Adobe reader is one of those ALMOST essential applications that MOST everyone has installed. So, this will be of particular interest to MOST computer users. A SERIOUS security flaw (They’re tagging it CRITICAL) could be exploited with a specially crafted PDF file in version 6.0.4 (or earlier – back to 6) of the Reader for Mac or Windows.
Version 6.0.5 has been released to address this. It should be noted that the current newest version available is 7.0.8….
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Mozilla Firefox use above 15% in the US…
and Internet Explorer use has dropped below 80% in the US. Currently 12.93% of online users browse with Firefox. Almost 40% of German web-browsers use Firefox to view the web. It’s nice to see Firefox’s share gaining. I, personally wouldn’t mind seeing SEVERAL competing, standards-compliant browsers with significant share’s. (Opera has moved above 1%.) I think (and hope) the day will come when it doesn’t matter a bit what browser you use (as long as it’s standards compliant.) Hopefully we’re moving towards that.
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Sophos suggests…. for more safety – get a Mac
Analyzing the state of the computer world…. Sophos Antivirus has suggested that consumers consider a Mac for their next PC if they’re concerned about the increasing swarm of malware targetting Windows PC’s. The main point being there are no ACTIVE malware threats against Mac systems and Windows still seems to be increasingly targetted. Mac will likely be less malware prone for the foreseeable future. No, MAC users – that is NOT an excuse to ignore Security updates!!!!
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Fasten your seatbelts – Browser vulnerability a day to be announced in July
I hope there aren’t too many browser developers that have planned on taking July off….. I ran across browserfun.blogspot.com where it is planned to release information on a web browser vulnerability EACH DAY for the month of July. This comes to us from HD Moore of Metasploit. Judging from This securityfocus article, most of the vulnerabilities may just lead to a browser crash, but some seem to be remote code execution vulnerabilities. Microsoft Internet Explorer is where they found most of them, but other browsers were NOT immune and did find at least one remotely exploitable vulnerability to gain remote access for each browser tested.
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Exploit in the wild for Apple vulnerability
A couple days ago there was a release of Mac OS X 10.4.7 which addressed several security flaws. There is now an exploit published for one of these vulnerabilities. The attacker using this exploit could gain remote root (administrator) access to the machine. So, don’t delay any further on patching. No system is a fortress if the administrator doesn’t keep up with security updates……
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Apple Mac OS X updates
There are several issues fixed by a bundle of updates for OS X (for 10.4 up to 10.4.6). The new release is 10.4.7 There are a number of issues fixed in addition to at least 3 security related problems. Incidents.org has more details. I know many Mac users feel the “aura of invincibility”, but…. keeping your OS updated is important no matter what Operating system you use…. mac, windows, linux, bsd, etc.
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Adobe Acrobat security update for Mac, Windows
Adobe has released updates to Acrobat Reader for Windows and Mac systems. I don’t see any mention of linux in the advisories, but I do see that the linux version available for download is now 7.0.8 as well (which is the same as the Mac/Windows versions.) *(Apparently they’re pushing more Yahoo! integration in this release as well.)
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Google Video Player for Mac released
The Official Google blog passes along the release of the Google Video Player for Mac. I’m impressed at the universal binary which means it should work on either PPC or Intel architecture. Here’s the download page.
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