User User name Password  
   
Monday 6.10.2025 / 13:45
Search AfterDawn Forums:        In English   Suomeksi   På svenska
afterdawn.com > forums > announcements > news comments > microsoft warns about new windows flaw affecting ie users
Show topics
 
Forums
Forums
Microsoft warns about new Windows flaw affecting IE users
  Jump to:
 
The following comments relate to this news article:

Microsoft warns about new Windows flaw affecting IE users

article published on 1 February, 2011

Microsoft has warned Windows users about a security flaw that could affect 900 million Internet Explorer users. The company warned in an advisory that the flaw could potentially be exploited by malicious users to hijack a computer or steal private information. Even though the flaw itself is in Windows, it only appears to affect the way Internet Explorer handles webpages and documents. ... [ read the full article ]

Please read the original article before posting your comments.
Posted Message
Senior Member

28 product reviews
_
1. February 2011 @ 22:17 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
Once again, Microsoft announces their security holes to everyone (especially hackers) before actually sending an update. The average user probably won't read about it or even bother to use their "fix it" solution. Micros**t.
Advertisement
_
__
ntense69
Member
_
1. February 2011 @ 23:01 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
with all the patches you would think people would go to more secure browsers
AfterDawn Addict

1 product review
_
2. February 2011 @ 00:37 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
You might also think that a cell phone famous for antenna problems wouldn't sell...but people still buy iPhones...most people just don't care about quality, reliability, or security.


shortybob
Member
_
2. February 2011 @ 01:43 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
I swear I read this headline every week.
AfterDawn Addict

1 product review
_
2. February 2011 @ 06:19 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
The wording changes from time to time, and they seem to miss a week once in a while.


Ben79
Junior Member
_
2. February 2011 @ 10:34 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
So it doesn't affect me, as I don't use IE.
Junior Member

2 product reviews
_
2. February 2011 @ 17:08 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
again. I'll patch it when a patch becomes available. It won't affect me, never use internet explorer anyways.
Xian
Senior Member
_
2. February 2011 @ 18:02 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
You might not have to use IE to be vulnerable. Since it is an exploit in the mhtml handler, extensions for other browsers that use that could possibly be vulnerable. Opera has it's own mhtml handler. I use the UnMHT extension for Firefox. I don't know if these are vulnerable, but I applied the FixIt to be on the safe side.

Check your registry, HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT and see what program is set to handle .mhtml and .mht files. If it is something besides IE, you could be vulnerable even with an alternate browser.
Zoo_Look
Suspended permanently
_
3. February 2011 @ 13:08 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
IE and Windows Explorer are one and the same, only the user interface is different (you can type web addresses in Windows Explorer and you can access your HD through IE remember). In fact, IE is so closely tied to Windows, that just using the desktop invokes some core IE functionality (active desktop anyone?).

The only way to completely avoid using IE, is to slipstream your Windows install (not an option if your using Windows already unless you want to wipe your HD) or use a different OS entirely (Linux / Mac-OS etc, which can bring on their own problems).

Gh0ce
Junior Member
_
3. February 2011 @ 14:38 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
Originally posted by Zoo_Look:
IE and Windows Explorer are one and the same, only the user interface is different (you can type web addresses in Windows Explorer and you can access your HD through IE remember). In fact, IE is so closely tied to Windows, that just using the desktop invokes some core IE functionality (active desktop anyone?).

The only way to completely avoid using IE, is to slipstream your Windows install (not an option if your using Windows already unless you want to wipe your HD) or use a different OS entirely (Linux / Mac-OS etc, which can bring on their own problems).

Can you explain to me how IE and windows explorer are the same thing? The two files have different file sizes (with windows explorer being nearly twice the size of IE), different file locations, different process identifications, different memory footprints, different DLL's referenced... in fact the only similarity I can see is that they both use the word "explorer" in their name. And uninstalling IE is easy: install a secondary web browser (makes things way easier), set the secondary browser to be the main web browser, delete the folder with IE in it (or rename it), smile. I had to do that when my IE got a nasty little virus... iexplore.exe got virused up and all cleaning I did was unable to fix it. Renamed the folder, then cleaned up the virus and had firefox on that system as the only browser for quite a while with little to no issues... then ran into compatibility issues with some webpages, and jumped back onto IE (IE 8 install was a breeze with technically no IE installed). Not sure where you are getting your facts about IE and WE from...

Thanks and have a nice day
The Gh0ce_>0
Zoo_Look
Suspended permanently
_
3. February 2011 @ 19:38 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
Do you have any idea how closely IE and Windows are tied at the hip?
Member
_
3. February 2011 @ 23:30 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
Originally posted by Gh0ce:

Originally posted by Zoo_Look:
IE and Windows Explorer are one and the same, only the user interface is different (you can type web addresses in Windows Explorer and you can access your HD through IE remember). In fact, IE is so closely tied to Windows, that just using the desktop invokes some core IE functionality (active desktop anyone?).

The only way to completely avoid using IE, is to slipstream your Windows install (not an option if your using Windows already unless you want to wipe your HD) or use a different OS entirely (Linux / Mac-OS etc, which can bring on their own problems).

Can you explain to me how IE and windows explorer are the same thing? The two files have different file sizes (with windows explorer being nearly twice the size of IE), different file locations, different process identifications, different memory footprints, different DLL's referenced... in fact the only similarity I can see is that they both use the word "explorer" in their name. And uninstalling IE is easy: install a secondary web browser (makes things way easier), set the secondary browser to be the main web browser, delete the folder with IE in it (or rename it), smile. I had to do that when my IE got a nasty little virus... iexplore.exe got virused up and all cleaning I did was unable to fix it. Renamed the folder, then cleaned up the virus and had firefox on that system as the only browser for quite a while with little to no issues... then ran into compatibility issues with some webpages, and jumped back onto IE (IE 8 install was a breeze with technically no IE installed). Not sure where you are getting your facts about IE and WE from...
Are you serious hahaha, MS thinks to make your life easy lets put everything together so you can access one thing from another but in the real world that is bad along with everything else they have built.

Just because you remove IE does not mean the core function is not still active. I would have to agree that they are linked together as they work off each other, just because there is different prints does not mean they are not working together requesting functions from each other.

Dam windows supporter lol
Zoo_Look
Suspended permanently
_
3. February 2011 @ 23:51 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
I'd even go so far as to correct myself, in that slipstraming your instal does not remove that core functionality, it merely removes or otherwise disables the IE executable as the previous poster before yourself has done. In fact, they themselves admit they had "little to no" issues, which is a democratic way of saying they had "some" issues.

Interesting quotes for them here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer#Removal

"Removing Internet Explorer does have a number of consequences. Applications that depend on libraries installed by IE will fail to function (or malfunction). The Windows help and support system will also not function due to the heavy reliance on HTML help files and components of IE. In versions of Windows before Vista, it is also not possible to run Microsoft's Windows Update or Microsoft Update with any other browser due to the service's implementation of an ActiveX control, which no other browser supports. In Windows Vista, Windows Update is implemented as a Control Panel applet.

With Windows 7, Microsoft added the ability to safely remove Internet Explorer 8 from Windows. Microsoft does not allow the dependencies to be removed through this process, but the Internet Explorer executable (iexplore.exe) is removed without harming any other Windows components."

Also, they seem to think that the court case regarding MS and the anti-trust lawsuit revolved around simply deleting or re-naming the IE executable... SERIOUSLY!? All those years of hearings and judgements and not one single person stood up and said "well actually, just delete the exe file"?
salsa36
Member
_
4. February 2011 @ 07:38 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
Nu hu a windows flaw??????
Advertisement
_
__
 
_
Zoo_Look
Suspended permanently
_
4. February 2011 @ 16:20 _ Link to this message    Send private message to this user   
lol, hardly news any-more really!
afterdawn.com > forums > announcements > news comments > microsoft warns about new windows flaw affecting ie users
 

Digital video: AfterDawn.com | AfterDawn Forums
Music: MP3Lizard.com
Gaming: Blasteroids.com | Blasteroids Forums | Compare game prices
Software: Software downloads
Blogs: User profile pages
RSS feeds: AfterDawn.com News | Software updates | AfterDawn Forums
International: AfterDawn in Finnish | AfterDawn in Swedish | AfterDawn in Norwegian | download.fi
Navigate: Search | Site map
About us: About AfterDawn Ltd | Advertise on our sites | Rules, Restrictions, Legal disclaimer & Privacy policy
Contact us: Send feedback | Contact our media sales team
 
  © 1999-2025 by AfterDawn Ltd.

  IDG TechNetwork