Firefox flaws account for 44% of all browser bugs

Firefox flaws account for 44% of all browser bugs

Apple's Safari takes second, with 35%, IE in third with 15%, says vulnerability tally

By Gregg Keizer
November 9, 2009 04:13 PM ET

Computerworld - Firefox accounted for almost half of all browser vulnerabilities in the first six months of 2009, a Web security company claimed today.

According to California-based Cenzic, Mozilla's browser had the largest percentage of Web vulnerabilities over the six-month span, while Apple's Safari had the dubious distinction of coming in second. Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) was third, while Opera Software's flagship browser took fourth place.
The Cenzic report can be downloaded from the company's site (download PDF).

"It's not rocket science," said Lars Ewe, Cenzic's chief technology officer, referring to the browser bug counting. "We used several databases, including the CVE (common vulnerabilities and exposures) database to count the number of known vulnerabilities."

Firefox accounted for 44% of all browser bugs reported in the first half of the year, said Ewe, while Safari vulnerabilities came to 35% of the total. IE, meanwhile, accounted for 15%, while 6% of all the flaws were in Opera.

More at: Firefox flaws account for 44% of all browser bugs

Sounds like to me that we have a modern case of the Roman empire here...

They build themselves up greatly only to crumble away

HughShaw said:

Don't trust everything you read on the internet.

That is true...but if you read the article (and do some research on your own...), you will see that Microsoft and Mozilla have clashed the last year or so on this issue because Microsoft took the opportunity to try and stop Mozilla's momentum: expose its flaws

Of course it isn't working a great deal but it helps Microsoft's cause

Let me say as a final note and I hope that anyone out there that feels that their firefox is unbeatable listens to this...As Firefox gains more and more momentinum....so will its "hacker appeal". DO NOT BE SURPRISED IF MORE FIREFOX REPORTS INDICATE INCREASED BUGS FOUND OR VIRUS ATTACKS. This is the nature of popular software vs. un-popular software.

Windows is a prime example...it is hit by many many more virus attacks compared to its rival OSX. If the tables were turned...OSX would be in the same boat

Mozilla needs to seriously implement Low Mandatory Integrity Control, like Microsoft did for IE7 in Windows Vista. While it is not a cure for any security holes, it will prevent most of them from harming the computer. Granted it will not work for those who disable UAC, but who cares about them. Currently only IE and Chrome implement Low MIC.

More on MIC: Mandatory Integrity Control - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lee said:

Very interesting. For those who remember the early years of the Mac vs Windows wars (I was a Mac guy) Mac's had more problems with viruses then Windows. As Windows became the OS of choose it gained in the virus department. Albeit, that is what is now happening in the browser wars. The more popular you become the better chance you become the new target.

That's one thing I've been saying right along about how FF would become the next "item of interest" for those who write malwares. When looking for a secondary browser to IE I found Opera was more favorable and now read this one on that seeing the lowest percentage of problems!

zezasu said:

...

Aside from all that bashing I remember reading that a huge chunk of hackers prefer using Opera so I think it makes sense. As to where i got this, well i sort of forgot, except for the part that hackers prefer it and my eyes shined with happiness that Opera is liked. I cant prove it but I thought id throw this in

Probably from Web Security Service by Purewire: Safe and Secure Web Browsing - the widely quoted source:

Firefox and Opera appear to be the browsers of choice for hackers running web sites that launch drive-by malware attacks, according to new research.
Paul Royal, a security researcher with web security service provider Purewire, is reported to have obtained the data after infiltrating the toolkits used by hackers to carry out these attacks, such as LuckySploit and UniquePack.
The research found that 46 per cent of the hackers use Firefox, while surprisingly Opera is second with 26 per cent, despite having just a two per cent market share.
Ironically, the hackers are using browsers with a smaller market share in order to avoid being hacked themselves, according to Rik Ferguson, senior security advisor at Trend Micro.
"They don't want to get compromised themselves," he said. "They stand to lose a lot - the profits of their criminal operations, control of botnets and so on - so they're looking after themselves."

So the hackers are using Firefox and opera as that makes them LESS likely to be hacked - which throws a slightly different light on this information.

It makes sense of it if you think about it. The report is that Firefox has more vulnerabilities - not more exploits.

Internet explorer has about 2/3 of the browser market so it will still gain most attention from hackers if it has fewer vulnerabilities (which is uncertain if Microsoft truly have been putting research $$$ into documenting FF vulnerabilities to make it look weak - a dumb idea really because it subsidises FF in edge in improving itself)

Firefox will certainly be targeted more and more this year and next as it seems to continue growing share. Maybe less hackers will use it less as this happens.

Opera however seems stuck at a relatively low 2.5% or so of the market so I can see the hackers will continue using that ... unless this information gets out and the world switches to Opera ... then they'll target that

Crazy B