Safest/fastest Browser?

K-Meleon is a lite Web browser based on gecko (the mozilla rendering engine). It's fast, has a minimal interface, and it is fully standards compliant. To make it simple, K-Meleon may be considered the unbloated Mozilla for Windows.
http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/
K-M v Opera v Phoenix:
http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net/forum/read.php?f=1&i=6388&t=6388

 

Hi Polo.I've heard of K-Meleon,never tried it though.I like Opera a lot.It's the fastest browser I have tried.As far as security in browsers...I think a big part of that is how you configure the browser.That second link was interesting.I do know that Opera doesn't work the best on some web sites.That's really the only trivial negative that I have experienced with Opera 6.05.Thanks for the links.

 

I would go with Opera for the safest. I read a while back about several security issues with Mozilla, but didn't pay a lot of attention as I had already dumped it. Any browser based on it's engine will probably have the same issues. But don't quote me on that please. Just trying to be helpful.
Just a heads up. If I can find what I'm talking about, I'll post a link. It may have been at the Register.
Found it.

Mozilla riddled with security holes
By John Leyden
Posted: 05/11/2002 at 10:38 GMT

Details of six flaws in Mozilla, the open source browser were posted on BugTraq at the weekend.

Versions of Mozilla previous to version 1.0.1 contain multiple security vulnerabilities, so users need to update their browser software. The flaws could be used by an attacker to read data off of the local hard drive, gain information which should normally be kept private, and in some cases to execute arbitrary code, an advisory by Red Hat explains.

That advisory was published on October 18, and dealt with problems that first came to light in September. Last Friday (November 1) BugTraq posted a half dozen updated advisories which spell out the various risks and gives links to proof on concept demonstrations relating to the six.

Firstly, and most seriously, we touch on a well reported weakness in Mozilla which meand that surfers may not get sufficient warning when being redirected from secure sites to other secure sites via non- secure sites. The consequences of this HTTP/HTTPS Redirection Weakness for ecommerce are serious and at very least may give users a false sense of security when browsing the Internet.

Next up there's a flaw with XMLSerializer, which comes with the XMLExtras package included with Mozilla (available on Unix, Linux, and Microsoft Windows platforms).

However the XMLSerializer object does not possess a check for the Same Origin Policy. "This may allow the object to be invoked to gain access to properties of another domain in a frame or iframe", an advisory cautions.

And there's more.

Due to improper implementation of the onkeypress function for the space bar, it is possible to use a keypress for multiple confirmations. The worry is this makes it easier for malicious software to slip under a user's radar and get installed. There's more information here.

We now draw your attention to a potential memory corruption bug with Mozilla. This issue occurs when "document.open()" is called when a form is submitted. Under certain circumstances processing this data will result in memory corruption, resulting in a denial of service.

Nasty.

Moving on, we have a warning that many alternative Web browsers are prone to memory corruption when handling GIF image files with a width field set to zero. Browsers reported to be affected are Netscape, Mozilla and Opera on Linux platforms. Other browsers and platforms may also be affected.

It may be possible to exploit this issue to cause a denial of service or potentially execute arbitrary code.

As multiple browsers are affected, the suspicion is that this vulnerability may be due to a common flaw in a library used to render GIF images (such as libungif), but this is yet to be confirmed.

Last, it's been discovered that a problem in Mozilla's implementation of the JavaScript "onUnload" event handler has the potential to leak sensitive information to Web sites about users' surfing patterns. On the face of it this the least serious of the six, and the only one which also affects Mozilla version 1.0.1 and 1.1. Find out more here. ®

If you go to The Register and do a search for Mozilla you can find the article. I don't know if we should link to there from here, so I did it this way.
Also it's possible these issues do not affect Gecko, I don't know.

 

One issue in Mozilla has to do with the site you are leaving being able to tell what site you have gone to.
This is taken care of by creating the line:
user_pref("capability.policy.default.Window.onunload", "noAccess"); in user.js
Don't know for sure if that affects K-Meleon, though.
I used it for a short time, and is was blazing fast. Just not many options/controls.

Douglas

 

polo,

Have you actually tried Phoenix 0.5? If not, I think you might get a little surprise vs K-Meleon. I should give KM another try myself because I only ran it for a couple of weeks and it was my first stab at the new Moz code. I just didn't like it and the bookmarks were a nightmare. If someones likes something or not *is* a subjective thing but I liked Phoenix 0.5 from the very start. To me it is MUCH easier to use than KM and just as fast. To each his own, I guess. <shrug>

Phil

 

Phil,

I am using Phoenix more and more. I like it a lot - love those tabs!

For those that want to try it:

http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/phoenix/releases/0.5/phoenix-0.5-win32.zip Windows

http://ftp36.newaol.com/pub/phoenix/releases/0.5/phoenix-0.5-i686-pc-linux-gnu.tar.gz
Linux

Nightly builds available at:
http://komodo.mozilla.org/pub/phoenix/nightly/latest-trunk/phoenix-win32.zip

Free, cross-platform....a lot to say for it.

John
Luv2BSecure

 

I agree, John. Before purchasing my current machine I used Netscape *only*. I have been like a fish out of water for the last year because I refused to install AOLscape and the older versions went goofy on XP. Phoenix had a few too many bugs for my taste but when .5 was released I could wait no longer. The default interface is butt-ugly but that's EASY to change. Add a few plugins like QuickPrefs and it's good to go.

Phil

 

Tryed kmeleon earlier this year....can't recall why I got rid of it.....

Just tryed phoenix last week....did not have any problems with it....only two comments on the negetive side...it used the same resources as did internet explorer....and the un-install left alot behind in windows...had to manually remove....no real issue. most people would never notice it.
if I could I would use anything other that IE....a frying pan if that worked........heck a banana is safer than IE....

 

Actually snowman, I tried browsing with a banana just yesterday thinking about how much safer it would be than IE -- and it went quite well -- it was FAST, in fact, it just flat peeled! I junked it though because I felt using a banana to browse the web was just too much monkeying around.

I'm thinking about using an apple too. I hear it uses an all-new core. I now know I've been up too late.

John
Luv2BSecure&UseFruitToBrowseTheWeb

 

LOL..

 

Banana Browser X.X

I like it !!

regards and happy holidays,
bill

 

Anyone here ever heard or used SurfTab ? I can't provide a link because I have not found one that works
SurfTab goes by the name of being a broswer but from what very little info I can find on it ..it looks more like a BHO.......uses IE.........numerous tabs..with the option to refresh the page in each tab every minute...interesting feature..........also, one tab may be devoted to ads...so this could be considered as adwear I suppose...........an just as supposedly its not suppose to be spyware........

snowman