Softpanorama Bulletin
Vol 24, No. 02 (February, 2012)

Prev | Contents | Next

For the pluralism in WEB browsers

Use IE in high security setting for Internet zone, add you favorites to trusted sites list and use Firefox for sites that requires less strict settings then that

Dr. Nikolai Bezroukov

Contents

• Introduction

• IE8 security mechanisms

• Firefox14_security_mechanisms

• Conclusions

• Webligraphy

Abstract

You can slightly improve safety of your browsing (and increase your troubles ;-) by setting IE to high security in internet zone and setting  medium level for "trusted sites" (say Amazon, Hotmail, Youtube)  and/or using Firefox for important for all other sites that does not display correctly with this arrangement (including all downloads). 

Among recommended setting:

• IE with default of high security mode allows no scripts to be executed providing you with high level of protection while you can use either trusted list for sites where you do need scripts. You can list selected sites as trusted with medium-high setting which is enough for most sites to work correctly. Use Firefox when medium high setting in not enough. This not enough for your complete protection but it does make it more challenging for malware authors to infect IE8 and, especially, IE9 in this mode -- malware authors typically are oriented on a "typical setup" (medium-high) and are keen to exploit some third party full of security holes application (standard Trojan horses of all PCs are Adobe Acrobat and Flash plug-in;-). Also using IE in high security mode partially cuts "snoopers" like Facebook (as no permanent cookies will be stored). In addition it is recommended to use in "In private" browsing mode in IE if you access "grey" sites.
  
• Make Cookies policy more restrictive. This is important not only for malware but for "snooping" sites and advertisers
• Block third party cookies.
• Set cleaning of cookies and all temporary internet files after browser session ended or use some intelligent "cookies pruning" program that preserves cookies from web sites listed as favorites or other relevant list,
• Set cleaning of temporary files. In IE it is possible to set cleaning of all temporary file after browser session ended.
   
• (optional) Block collection of information from you by Facebook.  In IE you can specify sites that are never allowed to use cookies regardless of their privacy policy. Facebook is an attractive candidate for the inclusion in this list.

  The InPrivate feature allows browsing the internet without leaving traces on a local machine. Behavior of the browser changes only for the InPrivate session, thus if user has had standard window open, its history would be stored as normal, whereas the activity within the stealth mode window would be discarded.  InPrivate Browsing changes the behavior in the following way:

  • New cookies are not stored. Kept in memory so pages work correctly, but cleared when you close the browser.
  • All new cookies become “session” cookies
  • Existing cookies can still be read
  • The new DOM storage feature behaves the same way. The DOM storage is a kind of "super cookie" web developers can use to retain information. Like regular cookies, they are not kept after the window is closed.
  • New history entries will not be recorded

  • New temporary Internet files will be deleted after the Private Browsing window is closed. They are stored on disk so pages work correctly, but deleted when you close the browser.

  • Form data is not stored
  • Passwords are not stored
  • Addresses typed into the address bar are not stored
  • Queries entered into the search box are not stored
  • Visited links will not be stored

  In addition to Facebook which is an information collection site masquerading as a social site, many legitimate sites and programs now have snooping components and connect to "mothership" periodically to transmit some information from your computer. So line between spyware and legitimate programs gradually becomes more and more fuzzy.  For example programs developed by Goggle (Google toolbar, Chrome, etc)  also have a huge appetite for collecting information about your browsing activities, especially if you login as Google user so that activity can be associated with your account. It looks like with Google++  Google business model is not that different from Facebook and that's why that promote Google Groups++ as there is no tomorrow. 
  
  Periodic cleaning of cookies (for example by using free CCcleaner) also helps to preserve your privacy and should be scheduled as a weekly activity. It is also possible to preserved just selected cookies for the sites you trust as cookies are often used to simplify authentication to the site. At least this shows all those jerks who collect information on you who is in control :-).  Requires some discipline but can be implemented by all Windows users. Stronger version of this defense uses browser of am second (possibly virtual) PC (see below).

Introduction

This paper is written first for my own consumption -- in order to understand better security issues in IE and Firefox. What I discovered with some dismay that most users, including myself are by-and-large ignorant as for security mechanism available in browsers and do not understand the features of provided mechanism, for example "In private browsing mode in IE. Gradually I started to understand that using two browser instead of one represent cheap and effective security mechanism in itself almost without detailed considerations of  strong or weak points for each browser. I chose IE as my "secure browser" simply because it is very easy to do so -- you just enable high security mode in it.  In less secure modes that allows running Active-X it proved to be an open door for malware. Then I created a keyboard macro that copes URL to the Firefox and each time I accidentally hit the site on which I need run scripts I used this macro to switch to Firefox.

After several refinements my initial notes written for myself acquire shape in which they might benefit others as well. Please take into account that this is still quite raw notes.

We will discuss the IE version 8 and Firefox version 14. These versions are definitely preferable to older one although IE 9 should probably be used on Windows 7.

As with any product the real issues are the level of technologies used against malware. Currently IE provides better environment for browsing in "high security mode". Firefox has add-ons NoScript that provides more granular per site controls. With NoScript, I can allow individual sites that I trust to run script content in my browser only when I need it, while defaulting to disallowing scripts for all others. This is more difficult to do in IE. You need explicitly put sites in high security zone to prohibit running scripts and that should be your default security stetting for Internet zone (Web is a dangerous place with the among of malware now circulating, and your setting should reflect this simple fact).  Default setting for trusted sites (which I understand as sites included as your favorites) should be medium-high. Any important site that "is uncomfortable" with those settings can be viewed in Firefox. 

Firefox also remains lower profile target then IE. Although share of IE dropped recently, this low profile status of Firefox still is preserved. It's still a lower profile target than IE. As many exploits are Adobe acrobat and other plug-ins exploits this does not buy you much security but being lower profile target is always good. As for built-in security feature Firefox remains by-and-large stagnant and IE is a better choice as for built-in protections.

Also Firefox developers are open source developers and as such they generally resent collecting information about the users so it is more suitable browser for your favorite sites. This is not one of the development goals as in the case with commercial browsers developers. That makes Firefox somewhat better choice then IE from the point of view of privacy,  although IE is not as bad as Chrome.  At one time Google tried to redirect each of the search results to itself  and that means it crossed the creepy line (see How Google crossed the creepy line - Telegraph)

In Google it can ne presented like:

... ... ...

Would be presented in Bing as

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/8086191/How-Google-crossed-the-creepy-line.html

In this paper I will argue that using two browsers one (IE) configured with high security and the other Firefox has just NoScript plug-in installed and used to browse trusted sites  provides higher level of security, the level unachievable by a single browser alone.

Both browsers clearly need improvement is certain security-related areas but using them in tandem creates an opportunity to use stronger features of each.

Etc

Society

Groupthink : Two Party System as Polyarchy : Corruption of Regulators : Bureaucracies : Understanding Micromanagers and Control Freaks : Toxic Managers :   Harvard Mafia : Diplomatic Communication : Surviving a Bad Performance Review : Insufficient Retirement Funds as Immanent Problem of Neoliberal Regime : PseudoScience : Who Rules America : Neoliberalism  : The Iron Law of Oligarchy : Libertarian Philosophy

Quotes

War and Peace : Skeptical Finance : John Kenneth Galbraith :Talleyrand : Oscar Wilde : Otto Von Bismarck : Keynes : George Carlin : Skeptics : Propaganda  : SE quotes : Language Design and Programming Quotes : Random IT-related quotes :  Somerset Maugham : Marcus Aurelius : Kurt Vonnegut : Eric Hoffer : Winston Churchill : Napoleon Bonaparte : Ambrose Bierce :  Bernard Shaw : Mark Twain Quotes

Bulletin:

Vol 25, No.12 (December, 2013) Rational Fools vs. Efficient Crooks The efficient markets hypothesis : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2013 : Unemployment Bulletin, 2010 :  Vol 23, No.10 (October, 2011) An observation about corporate security departments : Slightly Skeptical Euromaydan Chronicles, June 2014 : Greenspan legacy bulletin, 2008 : Vol 25, No.10 (October, 2013) Cryptolocker Trojan (Win32/Crilock.A) : Vol 25, No.08 (August, 2013) Cloud providers as intelligence collection hubs : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : Inequality Bulletin, 2009 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Copyleft Problems Bulletin, 2004 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Energy Bulletin, 2010 : Malware Protection Bulletin, 2010 : Vol 26, No.1 (January, 2013) Object-Oriented Cult : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2011 : Vol 23, No.11 (November, 2011) Softpanorama classification of sysadmin horror stories : Vol 25, No.05 (May, 2013) Corporate bullshit as a communication method  : Vol 25, No.06 (June, 2013) A Note on the Relationship of Brooks Law and Conway Law

History:

Fifty glorious years (1950-2000): the triumph of the US computer engineering : Donald Knuth : TAoCP and its Influence of Computer Science : Richard Stallman : Linus Torvalds  : Larry Wall  : John K. Ousterhout : CTSS : Multix OS Unix History : Unix shell history : VI editor : History of pipes concept : Solaris : MS DOS :  Programming Languages History : PL/1 : Simula 67 : C : History of GCC development :  Scripting Languages : Perl history   : OS History : Mail : DNS : SSH : CPU Instruction Sets : SPARC systems 1987-2006 : Norton Commander : Norton Utilities : Norton Ghost : Frontpage history : Malware Defense History : GNU Screen : OSS early history

Classic books:

The Peter Principle : Parkinson Law : 1984 : The Mythical Man-Month :  How to Solve It by George Polya : The Art of Computer Programming : The Elements of Programming Style : The Unix Hater’s Handbook : The Jargon file : The True Believer : Programming Pearls : The Good Soldier Svejk : The Power Elite

Most popular humor pages:

Manifest of the Softpanorama IT Slacker Society : Ten Commandments of the IT Slackers Society : Computer Humor Collection : BSD Logo Story : The Cuckoo's Egg : IT Slang : C++ Humor : ARE YOU A BBS ADDICT? : The Perl Purity Test : Object oriented programmers of all nations : Financial Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : The Most Comprehensive Collection of Editor-related Humor : Programming Language Humor : Goldman Sachs related humor : Greenspan humor : C Humor : Scripting Humor : Real Programmers Humor : Web Humor : GPL-related Humor : OFM Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : IDS Humor : "Linux Sucks" Humor : Russian Musical Humor : Best Russian Programmer Humor : Microsoft plans to buy Catholic Church : Richard Stallman Related Humor : Admin Humor : Perl-related Humor : Linus Torvalds Related humor : PseudoScience Related Humor : Networking Humor : Shell Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2012 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2013 : Java Humor : Software Engineering Humor : Sun Solaris Related Humor : Education Humor : IBM Humor : Assembler-related Humor : VIM Humor : Computer Viruses Humor : Bright tomorrow is rescheduled to a day after tomorrow : Classic Computer Humor

The Last but not Least Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand ~Archibald Putt. Ph.D

The statements, views and opinions presented on this web page are those of the author (or referenced source) and are not endorsed by, nor do they necessarily reflect, the opinions of the Softpanorama society. We do not warrant the correctness of the information provided or its fitness for any purpose. The site uses AdSense so you need to be aware of Google privacy policy. You you do not want to be tracked by Google please disable Javascript for this site. This site is perfectly usable without Javascript.

Last modified: March, 12, 2019