At Pwn2Own, Chrome Is First, IE Last In Browser Security

[Guest]

In the second day of the Pwn2Own competition, all browsers fell to exploits developed by security researches. However, Internet Explorer was hacked five times, while Chrome only fell once.

At Pwn2Own, Chrome Is First, IE Last In Browser Security : Read more

 

[dgingeri]

They sure show one of the major reasons I hate Adobe software on that list. Of course, that's just one reason. Copy protection software that can cause a system to fail to boot if the secret alternative data stream gets damaged is another one.

I give Microsoft a pass on this, considering they're far and away much better than Adobe on anything.

 

[kinggremlin]

So, they all lost. Ranking them when they all got hacked is like having a ship sink, killing everyone on board, and ranking the people by who drowned the least.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

This is why people should stay away from Internet Explorer. It is usually the non-tech-savvy consumer using IE who gets the viruses from exploits on websites.

 

[dgingeri]

I've managed to convince my family to use Firefox or Chrome. Most of them use Chrome. I've done well with the family.

 

[op8]

I've been trying to get my family to move to Chrome from Firefox for ages now but it's a a hassle for them, seeing as it was me that convinced them to move away from IE to Firefox in the first place. Next step is to get them to use TOR, but I doubt that will ever happen.

 

[ayushde]

Now I am not a security expert, so I can't comment on the security. But I've been using IE11 for quite some time now. And all I can say is that in terms of day to day user experience it is not one bit behind other browsers like chrome. I've tried moving to chrome, but I find the two finger scrolling (I use a laptop) on chrome to be extremely janky as compared to the buttery smoothness of IE.

 

[Nuckles_56]

Too bad opera wasn't included as well

 

[dusty13]

tiny nitpick ... according to the list it was 4 bugs in IE, according to the text 5 ... what was it? (i will be interested to see how spartan will do next year.)

and another thing: chrome only is the most secure browser if you do not install any addons at all.
chrome does not suffer from many bugs on its own but you have to fit it with a ton of addons to make it useful ... at which point it is about as secure as a blast door made of swiss cheese, because sadly they seem to fail at controlling addon security. yes addons are not part of the code google provides but they become their problem the second they actually impede their browsers security.
taking this into account safari probably would take away the win if this was a real-life test scenario.

 

[silverblue]

Firefox seems to crash far too much nowadays which puts me off more than its performance in hacking tests. As for IE, there are too many websites that only work properly with IE, some going as far as to suggest your browser is outdated (!).

 

[Cryio]

Firefox seems to crash far too much nowadays which puts me off more than its performance in hacking tests. As for IE, there are too many websites that only work properly with IE, some going as far as to suggest your browser is outdated (!).

Well, until Firefox doesn't gets their stuff together and implement multithreading rendering already, it will be a pain in the ass until 2016. By their schedule, multithreading is scheduled to be the 1st or 2nd Firefox version to be released in 2016.

 

[Marcus52]

Google's idea of "security" is "prevent everyone from spying on our customers except us. We want to SELL that information, not give it away!"

And - what about running Firefox with NoScript? Would the results be the same? You can't run NoScript on any other browser because they are built to prevent it from running - literally. And for those that think you can run it on Chrome - read the freakin fine print. It is NOT fully functional on Chrome.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Firefox seems to crash far too much nowadays which puts me off more than its performance in hacking tests. As for IE, there are too many websites that only work properly with IE, some going as far as to suggest your browser is outdated (!).

Internet Explorer is a pain in the butt for web designers to program for because there are so codes it cannot understand. Oh and people will probably downvote me who don't even do web design.

 

[jackt]

Yeah chrome is first, but it doesnt protect you frome google! chrome could be considered a spyware.

 

[Vladislaus]

Lool, it's funny calling chrome the most secure browser because others had more vulnerabilities. Yet the chrome exploit was the most critical of the bunch earning the most money for a single exploit.

 

[gseguin]

The story says five bugs for IE, five bugs for Windows, yet the table just below that paragraph states four bugs for IE, five bugs for Windows.

-- comment written using Chrome.

 

[r0llinlacs]

Hahaha google must be paying for some favorably biased experiments because it is absolutely and wholly 100% untrue. I rank Chrome far below the sad excuse called IE. I just had two friends get the same virus at the same time and both viruses came from Chrome and also infected Chrome. Chrome is google spyware. Security is the last thing you will get from Chrome because Chrome was made to spy, made to strip the user of control over the browser, which is, in it's intended purpose, to allow the spyware to work unobstructed from user interference. I use firefox with a myriad of plug-ins and I absolutely never have problems. I've had to beat it into my friends heads to not use Chrome and they both found out the hard way. The rest of you will suffer the same fate.

 

[Spac3nerd]

Firefox seems to crash far too much nowadays which puts me off more than its performance in hacking tests. As for IE, there are too many websites that only work properly with IE, some going as far as to suggest your browser is outdated (!).

Internet Explorer is a pain in the butt for web designers to program for because there are so codes it cannot understand. Oh and people will probably downvote me who don't even do web design.

I'm a web application developer and I have no idea what you are talking about and the poor English does not help your arguments. IE does not conform to certain standards well, but anything newer than IE 9 is generally pretty good.

What "codes" are you talking about? In terms of JavaScript performance, IE 9+ is quite acceptable. The only issues have to do with styling, but even a 12 year old can make styling work properly across browsers.

Complaining that IE 6, 7 or 8 don't conform to modern standards all that well is a non-argument since neither does any other browser from that same time period.

Everyone likes to rip on IE, but IE 11 is actually not all that bad.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Firefox seems to crash far too much nowadays which puts me off more than its performance in hacking tests. As for IE, there are too many websites that only work properly with IE, some going as far as to suggest your browser is outdated (!).

Internet Explorer is a pain in the butt for web designers to program for because there are so codes it cannot understand. Oh and people will probably downvote me who don't even do web design.

I'm a web application developer and I have no idea what you are talking about and the poor English does not help your arguments. IE does not conform to certain standards well, but anything newer than IE 9 is generally pretty good.

What "codes" are you talking about? In terms of JavaScript performance, IE 9+ is quite acceptable. The only issues have to do with styling, but even a 12 year old can make styling work properly across browsers.

Complaining that IE 6, 7 or 8 don't conform to modern standards all that well is a non-argument since neither does any other browser from that same time period.

Everyone likes to rip on IE, but IE 11 is actually not all that bad.

My argument was against silverblue saying that many websites "only work with IE" - I have yet to see some of these. I do know that Microsoft pays websites at times to say you have to use Internet Explorer for it to work properly - I even saw this on a .gov website before which is all total bull.

 

[torniojaws]

I highly doubt they found out those exploits on the spot. If they have any business-sense, they are constantly accumulating more and more 0-day exploits on their own and only revealing some of them in contests like this. The very best exploits are most likely well-kept secrets, that they use to benefit themselves outside of the public.

 

[firefoxx04]

Strange. In the real world I find that the virus ridden customer computers are the same computers that have Chrome as the default browser. Not saying its Chrome's fault, just saying that in the real world that is how the cookie crumbles. I have never been exploited by Adobe or firefox either. My conclusion is that safe browsing habits are much more important that browser choice.

 

[ohim]

And i`m sitting here on Opera watching others bash each other with their favourite browser.

 

[dgingeri]

My argument was against silverblue saying that many websites "only work with IE" - I have yet to see some of these. I do know that Microsoft pays websites at times to say you have to use Internet Explorer for it to work properly - I even saw this on a .gov website before which is all total bull.

I have three specific things in my lab that only work with IE7 or 8: Dell's iDRAC on the R710 and R510, a tape library interface, and a FC switch interface. I hate them all, because even in IE 7 or 8 they're buggy, but I have no choice but to use them. I have a VM with WinXP and an old version of Java 6 that I have to keep around specifically to use these things.

 

[Karadjgne]

Ya'll miss the point.

Since the days of Windows95 A, Microsoft has pretty much had the monopoly on Web browsers, and even moving from DOS base to NTSC didn't change things much. What all that means is hackers, virus-techs, exploiters etc have all grown up with Microsoft. Who hacked compu-serve? No one, cuz no one really used it. Netscape same deal. So what was known? IE, be it 6 or 7 or 11 or whatever.
Also to consider is IE is integrated into Windows itself, so once it's exploited, you are in Windows OS. Chrome, Firefox etc are add on apps, crack them and you still have another step to go to mess with the OS.

And let's face it, there are many who simply chose to concentrate on IE simply because they get a kick out of screwing over Microsoft in general.

 

[dgingeri]

Not true. They have a majority of the market share, sure, but it is still only about 60%. That's not a monopoly. More and more people started using Firefox, and then Chrome shortly after that, way back when IE8 came up with so many security problems. They've had a combined 35% of the market for a while now, which is pretty significant. Web site designers have taken notice of this and adjusted their habits to make web pages work in these browsers, mostly.