IE Vulnerabilities

[LeRoi]

Recommendation, USE ANOTHER PRODUCT!

http://www.secunia.com/advisories/10289/

[GrannyD]

Thanks Leroi. I signed up at this site. Can't bee too careful.

[LeRoi]

Originally posted by GrannyD@Nov 25 2003, 01:48 PM
Thanks Leroi. I signed up at this site. Can't bee too careful.
You are most welcome, GrannyD. I'm glad you signed up to receive notices of vulnerabilities, now you can help me warn folks, LOL. :lol:

I couldn't agree more that you can't be too careful on the internet these days; it just gets worse and worse.

I'm switching to Linux asap. I hope I can pretty soon, but it may be a while yet.

[Ranger Bob]

Thanks for the warning but I think I will stick with IE.

[LeRoi]

Originally posted by Ranger Bob@Nov 25 2003, 02:32 PM
Thanks for the warning but I think I will stick with IE.
Good luck...

At least you keep a recent Ghost image, right?

Most folks don't have those, but it surely would pay if you use IE for surfing the web.

[Ranger Bob]

LeRoi I have never needed a Ghost image or clone due to a virus or trojan. How you use the web is much more important than the browser you use.

[LeRoi]

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973...3,793358,00.asp (http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,793358,00.asp)

[redmaledeer]

While on the subject of IE Vulnerabilities, perhaps it's worth mentioning that MS's super tuesday (11/11) update has caused problems in a variety of contexts, as can be seen by looking on the web. This was the third version of this patch, because the first two didn't correct the vulnerabilities they were supposed to. Maybe that should have told me something before I installed it.

My context is Windows_98SE and IE_5.5, both fully updated (alas). Shortly (or immediately) after I installed Q824145, booting would give complaints that DLL's were missing or corrupt, followed by a fatal crash in Explorer. DOS still ran, but that was all.

After much thrashing around I fixed this by replacing several DLL's and doing a partial reload of Windows. But this comes close to making me want to "use a different product," as I think some earlier posters put it.

Normally I wait a while after a patch comes out before installing it. I don't want to be a guinea pig. This one I installed right away, maybe because of its supposed criticality, and maybe because I finally wanted to get those vulnerabilities fixed.

So how does one balance not wanting to be a guinea pig versus not wanting to leave oneself open to vulnerabilites, especially after they have been publicized and thus known by malefactors?

-- redmaledeer

[LeRoi]

Welcome to the forums, redmaledeer

>>So how does one balance not wanting to be a guinea pig versus not wanting to leave oneself open to vulnerabilites, especially after they have been publicized and thus known by malefactors?<<

Good question, about the only answer I can give is to use anti virus, registry protection software, anti trojan, firewall and of course a non IE browser every chance you get and wait and see if problems are reported before installing updates.

I want to install and learn Linux, but circumstances won't permit right now.

[Ranger Bob]

Originally posted by redmaledeer@Nov 26 2003, 02:18 AM
While on the subject of IE Vulnerabilities, perhaps it's worth mentioning that MS's super tuesday (11/11) update has caused problems in a variety of contexts, as can be seen by looking on the web. This was the third version of this patch, because the first two didn't correct the vulnerabilities they were supposed to. Maybe that should have told me something before I installed it.

My context is Windows_98SE and IE_5.5, both fully updated (alas). Shortly (or immediately) after I installed Q824145, booting would give complaints that DLL's were missing or corrupt, followed by a fatal crash in Explorer. DOS still ran, but that was all.

After much thrashing around I fixed this by replacing several DLL's and doing a partial reload of Windows. But this comes close to making me want to "use a different product," as I think some earlier posters put it.

Normally I wait a while after a patch comes out before installing it. I don't want to be a guinea pig. This one I installed right away, maybe because of its supposed criticality, and maybe because I finally wanted to get those vulnerabilities fixed.

So how does one balance not wanting to be a guinea pig versus not wanting to leave oneself open to vulnerabilites, especially after they have been publicized and thus known by malefactors?

-- redmaledeer
I have had no problems on Windows XP or 2000 since applying the updates but I have not updated my one PC that still runs Windows 98 so I don't know how it would react.