Firefox-users are warned not to download a plug-in posing as an e-,actually it is a plug-in that tries to steal passwords.
An e-mail says the sender has struck it rich and wants to send a book to learn how to experience the same together with a link, this links is for a Russian, http://qs-s.nm.ru, which tries to install a malicious .xpi file.
This is a Firefox extension and Sans Johannes Ullrich van het Sans Institute inspected this plug-in and thinks it is a “form grabber”,
Then you missed two social engineering moments (you made two mistakes) before you click to install the malicious xpi.
Furthermore you can look inside Fx what you actually loaded there, and if these are genuine and legit or added from malcreants
The Vietnamese language pack on the official site was also uploaded there with malware onbard, but the developer was not aware. Best policy is to never trust anything where browsers are concerned, and be savvy, forewarned is forearmed. You have to do something to install malware onto your computer, and the educated regular visitor of the avast webforums might know how to avoid that and won’t fall for malware’s charms. Always think of the two valuable P-words: Prevention and Protection!
With IE you have less of these issues, because that is not interfering the large developer’s business model, you own 70% of the “mainstream” users, but you have a difficult time to develop in a 1998 style and developing language, whereas Python and C are open to you, so the add-on landscape is slowly changing Then you do not have the security aware and individualistic user as the Firefox community is that block your scripts and ads, cookies, ID tags etc. Reason that Google phased Chromium in!
But we can easily state now that Fx has got enough platform to make it an interesting enough browser for cybercriminals to nabble at its weak sides. But Firefox together with NoScript has not be beaten yet,
With the need to add all those plug-ins for safety, and now the possibility that some of them may be malware, I often wonder why so many of you like Firefox. ???
Well as I have stated earlier in this thread, this is between the security-aware individualistic Fx-user and the more mainstream user of IE7 and IE8. And I agree with our friend FwF: “why compare apples and pears”. Mozilla is open source by origin, the phoenix of Netscape. It is starting slower on the Windows platform because it is not built into the OS like IE. Some say during the past year Fx leaked holes like Swiss Cheese, but they were patched real quick, and with the NoScript extension installed none of these vulnerabilities were critical. The momentary state of IE is also that it is advised not to run script at the moment, and we have not the greenest clue as to how many holes it may have (as it is closed software we are in the dark, but some are being found up, and most of these exploits are published just before another patch Tuesday). Fx has several security issues, but IE also has ActiveX problems, sxript vulnerabilities, Browser Helper Objects, a hijackthis log full of them, if you care to look for them.
What I like about Fx users, they are part of a community, they just do not click inside a certain browser because they never knew there was something outside the blue e what they use for their clicks. (Did you know by the way that one search query inside a browser cost as much energy as having a lightbulb burning for one hour?) Fx users can learn to tweak and give their browser extensions to secure their browser to a far extent. On the other end with some measures to change IE from default and using IE together with Safe XP this browser can also be secure.
So what is the point?
I use Firefox because it has in my personal opinion slightly better/more usefull functions than IE and the main reason i started using it quite a few yrs ago was that it had tabs and some fantastic add-ons that allowed me to restore my previous sessions. Back then Opera was still a pay for program and i never really liked Netscape so FF was the only real choice for me. I don’t really care if it’s safer than IE or not, i like the program as a whole and besides getting used to it over the years i think i have my computer quite decently protected so i am not worried at all about security/privacy.
BTW these days i think that all three main browsers are really quite good(IE, Opera and FF) and if i weren’t so used to FF i would have a tough time deciding which one to use. As far as FF starting up slowly, SORRY but on my pretty decent machine it get’s loaded really fast and that 0.5 seconds that i would gain by using IE doesn’t make a difference to me.
You want to get the reply that the MSIE is ugly (subjective), has demented ActiveX (objective) and has no extensions (no, Maxthon is not an extension). That would definitely lead to flame, right? :
Well, you are right, as I should have known better with some who post here.
I do not use FireFox and therefore, only wanted to know simple answers to the simple question as to why those who use it like it so well when so much more is needed to keep safe. I do not remember asking for comments against FireFox or for why other browsers are used. I never asked “what is your favorite browser and why.”
I have learned from this, though. I will not ask similar questions again. >:(
I do not want the General section closed like “the other section” was a few years ago.
I do not use FireFox and therefore, only wanted to know simple answers to the simple question as to why those who use it like it so well when so much more is needed to keep safe. I do not remember asking for comments against FireFox or for why other browsers are used. I never asked "what is your favorite browser and why."
So much more is needed to keep it safe? Firefox is identical to IE in what is needed to keep it safe: don’t get infected by a Trojan, and don’t install untrusted add-ons, toolbars or extensions.
I never asked "what is your favorite browser and why."
So why did we get two people posting about how much they love IE8, and another posting some trash about people only using Firefox because they hate microsoft?
Please keep threads about Firefox malware on topic.
while I think your request is sound I suspect is also p*ssing into the wind.
This is like the wars of religion. I fear that we (forgive the term since you are one of younger amongst us) older folks are simply engaged in the timeless child’s response of “mine is better than yours is”. No wonder our generation is just as unable to sort out the problems of the world as those who went before … we are all just as gullible and simple as they were.
I think that darth_mikey summed it up pretty well. We are, most of us, trying to dress up our personal likes (and dislikes) in some cloak of technical approval (or disapproval) based on the latest truth (or hype) we read in the forum that caters to and promotes our personal preference.
I use Firefox because I prefer it over IE. That is my choice. I support folks who prefer Firefox, I support folks who prefer IE - and since I am unpaid by both sets … I will let others finish as they may.
Lets just say ALL browsers have their problems. It doesn’t matter which you like, so lets just keep watching each others back when it comes to Malware OK?
And please, it would be nice if we keep the threads entitled “Stop using IE7 for good” to a minimum.
I am getting very tired of those.
If you decide IE is best, use it. If you decide FireFox is best, use it.
The same is true about Opera. We should be fighting malware here, not split into Microsoft/Mozilla camps which is what has been happening lately.
In the end, 98.79% of the PC problems arise due to the end-user. Even if you give them a browser from the 24th century, it will be useless, if they give out all their passwords, the first time someone asks them to.
In the same spirit … let’s skip characterizing other forum members as “anti-Microsoft”. It is useless, it is counter-productive and it does nothing to forward a thread or build forum community.
