http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207000123
By Paul McDougall
InformationWeek
March 27, 2008
Researchers at software security firm Secunia said they've found two
"highly critical" vulnerabilities in Apple's Safari 3.1 For Windows
browser.
In one instance, files with long names downloaded via the browser "can
be exploited to cause memory corruption," according to Secunia. That
could result in the host computer becoming vulnerable to arbitrary code
execution -- a situation where intruders can remotely execute commands
on the targeted machine.
The other vulnerability lets hackers display their own content in pages
loaded into Safari 3.1 without changing what's displayed in the
browser's URL address bar.
Secunia notes that neither vulnerability has been patched by Apple.
Word of the problems is the latest black eye for Safari 3.1.
A number of users have complained that the browser functions poorly, or
crashes altogether, on computers running Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)'s
Windows XP operating system.
"When I try to start Safari 3.1 in Windows XP, it crashes right away,"
said SakJosep, in a post currently on Apple's online support forum.
Such complaints are echoing across a Safari support forum thread on
Apple's Web site.
Apple's also been hit with criticism for the way it launched the new
browser last week. The company included it as a stealth update for users
of its iTunes and QuickTime software. Mozilla CEO John Lilly likened the
strategy to tactics used by hackers to insert malicious code into
downloads.
"Apple has made it incredibly easy -- the default, even -- for users to
install ride along software that they didn't ask for, and maybe didn't
want," said Lilly, in a blog post. "This is wrong, and borders on
malware distribution practices."
Safari competes with Mozilla's Firefox product in the Web browser
market.
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