Web browsers process untrusted web content, making flaws, malicious extensions, and stolen session data important cybersecurity concerns.
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Background for this topic.
A web browser is software that retrieves and displays websites and web applications, while executing code such as JavaScript and storing data including cookies, credentials, and browsing history. Its security boundary includes the browser interface, rendering engine, networking components, extensions, and connections to operating-system resources.
Browsers are exposed to malicious or compromised websites, phishing pages, drive-by exploitation of browser vulnerabilities, and abusive extensions. A successful exploit may escape browser isolation or access site data, while stolen cookies can enable account use without the password. Important defenses include prompt browser and extension updates, sandboxing and site isolation, phishing protection, carefully controlled permissions, and HTTPS (which protects data in transit but does not make a site trustworthy). Organizations may also manage versions, extensions, and configuration centrally, and use browser telemetry during vulnerability management or investigations.
Weekly headline count for the current query.
Direct navigation -- the act of visiting a website by manually typing a domain name in a web browser -- has never been riskier: A new study finds the vast majority of "parked" domains -- mostly expired or dormant domain names, or common misspellings of popular websites -- are now configured to redirect visitors to sites that foist scams and malware.
In March 2024, Mozilla said it was winding down its collaboration with Onerep -- an identity protection service offered with the Firefox web browser that promises to remove users from hundreds of people-search sites -- after KrebsOnSecurity revealed Onerep's founder had created dozens of people-search services and was continuing to operate at least one of them. Sixteen months later, however, Mozilla is still promoting Onerep. This week, Mozilla announced their partnership with Onerep will officially end next month.
Microsoft today released updates to fix more than 60 security holes in Windows computers and supported software, including two "zero-day" vulnerabilities in Windows that are already being exploited in active attacks. There are also important security patches available for macOS and Adobe users, and for the Chrome Web browser, which just patched its own zero-day flaw.
The nonprofit organization that supports the Firefox web browser said today it is winding down its new partnership with Onerep, an identity protection service recently bundled with Firefox that offers to remove users from hundreds of people-search sites. The move comes just days after a report by KrebsOnSecurity forced Onerep's CEO to admit that he has founded dozens of people-search networks over the years.
The Minnesota-based Internet provider U.S. Internet Corp. has a business unit called Securence, which specializes in providing filtered, secure email services to businesses, educational institutions and government agencies worldwide. But until it was notified last week, U.S. Internet was publishing more than a decade's worth of its internal email -- and that of thousands of Securence clients -- in plain text out on the Internet and just a click away for anyone with a Web browser.
One of the oldest malware tricks in the book -- hacked websites claiming visitors need to update their Web browser before they can view any content -- has roared back to life in the past few months. New research shows the attackers behind one such scheme have developed an ingenious way of keeping their malware from being taken down by security experts or law enforcement: By hosting the malicious files on a decentralized, anonymous cryptocurrency blockchain.
A number of Discord communities focused on cryptocurrency have been hacked this past month after their administrators were tricked into running malicious Javascript code disguised as a Web browser bookmark.
Microsoft on Tuesday released software updates to fix 60 security vulnerabilities in its Windows operating systems and other software, including a zero-day flaw in all supported Microsoft Office versions on all flavors of Windows that's seen active exploitation for at least two months now. On a lighter note, Microsoft is officially retiring its Internet Explorer (IE) web browser, which turns 27 years old this year.