Your opinion on the safest browser?

I know that you have heard about it but what is the opinion for FF. I like it .it is simple and safe i guess.

 

Like its other major competitors, it's a nice browser that will probably serve your needs quite well. It's just that it isn't really a contender when it comes to the question of "safest".

 

Firefox with NoScript should be very safe I think?

 

With or without extensions/add-ons?

 

So then what are the real contenders when it comes to the question of being "safest" ?

 

Which reason?

 

Bellgamin hit the nail on the head.

Not the most exciting or pretty by far. Far from being well known. But the question concerned secure\security.

Text only is the way to go.

 

Opera is also my first choice. Right now I'm testing the new Opera 10 Alpha with Turbo, which is quite a bit faster than their previous versions.

For my second choice I'll vote for Maxthon 2.5.2. even though it uses IE 8 as it's rendering engine, but has more security features which I like.

 

Is there much security risk in setting IE 8 as the default browser ?

Does much known malware use the default browser setting when it tries to phone home ?

 

Opera, IMO -- less popular than FF so it's less targeted.

 

FF w/ NoScript, Adblock Plus, and WOT is as safe as a browser can get IMHO.

Never had a security issue since installing those add-ons.

100% highly recommended for FF users

 

Hi Guys!

On this site can you see how secure your browser is,
My current browser Safari BETA 4.0 for Windows got good results !-)

http://www.useragentstring.com/

SweX

 

As did Opera here.......

 

Opera always gets U here, its one of the most secure and fastest patched browser there.

 

Sorry, but that's, er, kind of silly.

That site just reports what your useragent string is telling it. It's got nothing to do with how secure your browser actually is.

 

YES it tells you how secure your useragentstring is yea
And if you don't get the U then it's not secure!

But calling it a "silly" site hmm don't know if it's that silly is it

However, if you know of a browser security tester site that is not "silly"
then you can post it here, thank you.

But this was the best i could do

SweX

 

Any browser can be made safe. Might as well pick one you enjoy using.
Some (like Opera & Chrome) take less work to make safe, when compared to some others (FF).

As a side note, anyone using Chrome?

 

According to this [page 40-41]:

The total number of vulnerabilities affecting the following Web browsers 2008 [page 38]:

So the safest browsers are: Safari, Opera, Chrome?!

 

Nothing more to say, really...

Nonetheless, I'll add that I've tested every exploit site in the wild I've seen mentioned and have yet to find one that has compromised Opera. (Note that I said exploits in the wild, not vulnerabilities listed in surveys).

Now, not all exploits are browser-specific. Those that target applications with plugins for the browser, for example. In these cases, it requires the user to configure the browser properly so that the exploit doesn't bypass the normal Download protection the browser has.

----
rich

 

The WinAntiVirus exploit has been called a browser exploit because the fake scan starts automatically, leading to the download of malware.

Typically, the user is redirected from a legitimate website to the fake scan site, which has javascript code such as

Code:

script src='fileslist.js'
script src='progressbar2.js'
script src='common.js'

These files load the images for the scan. If scripting is disabled in the browser, the files don't cache, and all the user sees is a blank page:

​

If scripting is enabled, then the fake stuff starts:

​

Whereupon, the user is confronted with alerts that the computer is worse than a rat's nest because "critical level threats" were not removed, so that this great product is needed to save the day:

​

A brief Quiz:

How does this product get downloaded?

1) The browser does it automatically

2) The user clicks to download.​

For those that need to do some research on this, I'll give you some time and return later with the answer.

----
rich

 

I hope you agree that the user initiates the download.

So, is WinAntiVirus2009 a browser exploit? Or a user error?

Today's browsers allow you to configure site preferences. In Opera, first you disable Javascript Globally:

Then you enable javascript for your trusted sites - here, Wilders:



This means that any site linked from Wilders will not have Javascript enabled. Here, I click on the link to the article in the post:

​

So, the WinAntiVirus exploit would fail to initiate with this configuration.

I think this is a great feature. You have to be sympathetic for certain people who might fall for this fake scan trick, if they have no real understanding about these things.

Setting up scripting this way is not difficult to teach, and it certainly will avoid many of the exploits today that require scripting just to start!

----
rich

 

These figures are rather bogus. Read my answer here.

 

With all due respect, the days where Mozilla can tout its security as a selling point over its competitors are long gone. The sooner it can wake up to this and focus on catching up, the better.

 

You still have not explained why you dont think firefox is a secure browser.

 

Maybe you should tell them this.