Currently browsing Posts Tagged “browsers”

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Safari AutoFill Exploit: Disable Immediately

Posted by Scott Jarkoff in Shorts

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Jeremiah Grossman has uncovered a fatal privacy flaw in Apple’s Safari Web Browser v4 and v5 which allows a malicious web site to surreptitiously extract data automatically filled Jeremiah Grossman by way of the “AutoFill” functionality.

All a malicious website would have to do to surreptitiously extract Address Book card data from Safari is dynamically create form text fields with the aforementioned names, probably invisibly, and then simulate A-Z keystroke events using JavaScript. When data is populated, that is AutoFill’ed, it can be accessed and sent to the attacker.

There is currently no fix available for this vulnerability. Until Apple does release a security update addressing this exploit, immediately turn off the AutoFill feature in Safari. Either that or modify your Address Book Card to something with innocuous data.

On a side note, according to Grossman he informed Apple over a month ago about the exploit but has yet to receive a response. No surprise there – Apple is renown for not responding to such submissions. This is not to say they will not provide a response, but rather to keep the issue on the down-low, which is really how Apple rolls when it comes to flaws with their products.

Flock Beta Now Powered by Chromium

Posted by Scott Jarkoff in Shorts

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Flock, the Mozilla-powered social browser, has recently released a new beta powered by Chromium, the same foundation Google Chrome is built upon. The result of ditching Mozilla in favor of Chromium has allowed Flock to see a huge increase in speed, bringing it on par with its WebKit-powered brethren.

Flock is faster, simpler, and more friendly. Literally. It’s the only sleek, modern web browser with the built-in ability to keep you up-to-date with your Facebook and Twitter friends.

Share web pages, photos, and video. Update your status and make comments—from anywhere on the web!

Unlike previous incarnations of Flock, the new Chromium powered browser offers a minimal design utilizing a simplistic sidebar for the built-in social networking features. Flock uses this sidebar to present an activity stream from your accounts on popular social networking sites, combining Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and RSS feeds all in to one sexy display. The sidebar is entirely user configurable, allowing you to decide what information you want to see.

I have to say I am quite impressed. While I was always intrigued by the features Flock offered, I was never able to commit myself to using the browser. The GUI was chaotic and the implementation was lackluster, even though it sounded like a great idea. The new beta is a 180-degree reversal from the previous versions and may be a worthwhile switch.

Currently the new beta of Flock is only available for Windows although an OS X version is under active development. Although Chrome offers a number of extensions capable of performing many of the same tasks, Flock offers a far more fluid and intuitive design, simplifying the process and making it easier to combine all that data in to a single, usable stream.

If you are a hardcore social networker then Flock may be just the medicine you need!

Surf Encrypted with EFF Firefox Extension

Posted by Scott Jarkoff in Shorts

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The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Tor Project have developed HTTPS Everywhere, a Firefox extension aimed at forcing the browser to use https on certain web sites, thus assuring the privacy offered by browsing securely.

This Firefox extension was inspired by the launch of Google’s encrypted search option. We wanted a way to ensure that every search our browsers sent was encrypted. At the same time, we were also able to encrypt most or all of the browser’s communications with some other sites:

  • Google Search
  • Wikipedia
  • Twitter and Identi.ca
  • Facebook
  • EFF and Tor
  • Ixquick, DuckDuckGo, Scroogle and other small search engines
  • and lots more!

Firefox users can install HTTPS Everywhere by following this link.

If you value your privacy online, or if you would like to ensure the prying eyes of your ISP are unable to spy on your web browsing – whether to perform deep packet analysis for advertising or to see if you are potentially infringing on the copyright cartel’s products – then this is a must-have extension.

This extension will not automagically make your entire web surfing encrypted. HTTPS Everywhere is designed to initiate https sessions for those web sites explicitly configured. For example, TechMiso does not currently offer an https option therefore this extension will not secure your browsing session with our miso soup loving site. Make sure you understand how this extension works before you install.

Too bad HTTPS Everywhere is currently Firefox-only. Considering how popular Google Chrome is these days I certainly hope they plan to develop a Chrome extension.

Google Chrome Offers Extension Sync

Posted by Scott Jarkoff in Shorts

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Not content to offer mere bookmark, preferences and theme synchronization between browsers, Google Chrome has upped the ante by now offering to sync installed extensions as well:

Extension sync has landed in the Google Chrome dev channel build.

It’s not enabled by default, so you won’t see it in your sync options menu unless you activate the feature via a command line switch. –enable-sync-extensions –sync-url=https://clients4.google.com/chrome-sync/dev turns it on.

Sync in and of itself is a pretty standard feature, as most browsers offer some form of synchronization through the use of third-party plug-ins or extensions. However, adding extension sync is pretty killer because there is no need to remember to download, install and configure an extension on multiple computers – do it once and its taken care of everywhere else you use that same browser.

I have been sold on Google Chrome for quite some time now, having migrated away from Firefox on OS X. I find the latter to be bloated, slow and largely unresponsive compared to Chrome, which feels lightweight and speedy. Chrome does everything I need it to do, and just as good, if not better, than Firefox.

Plus Chrome has the one feature I adore the most – a combination search and address bar. No need for the multiple input boxes, one for the address bar and one for search, like what Firefox and IE offer. Chrome does it better. Period.

Post WWDC Keynote Present – Apple Delivers Safari 5

Posted by Scott Jarkoff in Shorts

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The final days leading up to the WWDC saw a number of sites post rumors about a possible Safari update. Unfortunately Steve Jobs managed to walk away from the stage without ever mentioning this potential update. It appears that Apple did in fact release an update to Safari upon the conclusion of the keynote.

Apple on Monday released Safari 5, the latest version of its desktop Web browser, with a 30 percent performance increase, the addition of Bing search and secure sandboxed extensions, as well as support for more than a dozen new HTML5 technologies.

The most exciting new feature of Safari 5 is the ability to develop extensions, much like what Firefox and Chrome currently offer. This should allow for endless possibilities of expanded support within Safari – such as a native del.icio.us bookmarks extension and much more.

Check out the full list of what is new in Safari 5. This update appears to be one that cannot be overlooked.

Google Chromium for Mac OS X First Impressions

Posted by Scott Jarkoff in Articles

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Are you a Mac OS X user dying to get your dirty little hands on a working copy of Google Chrome for Mac because of all the hype surrounding the Windows version of the browser? No need to wait any longer as nightly test builds of Chromium are available to anyone interested in test driving the early developmental releases of the browser. The TechMiso Soup Chefs took Chromium for a spin and here’s what we found about this highly anticipated project.

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Apple’s Safari 4 Beta Is Blindingly Fast!

Posted by Scott Jarkoff in Articles

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Safari 4 BetaIf you do not live under a rock then surely you know that earlier this week Apple surprised the world and released an early beta of Safari 4, packing a major interface change, speed enhancements and a few other nifty features. Rather than report on the actual release of the browser itself, I thought it would be more beneficial to use Safari 4 for a couple days and write-up my thoughts on such usage. So without further ado, here is what the miso soup lovers found over the course of the past few days.

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Are Browser Bookmarks Really Necessary Any Longer?

Posted by Scott Jarkoff in Articles

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1000 mobilesWe are becoming an increasingly mobile society, relying on access to our data in multiple ways, through multiple devices and on multiple networks. Browser bookmarks are a dated technology, having been married to web browsers ever since the dawn of Internet time. Bookmarks have not really evolved throughout their lifespan. They are a largely static feature and they continue to offer no truly revolutionary usage method.

Based on how we are migrating away from a single computing device on a single network to multiple devices across multiple networks, are bookmarks really the solution to our requirement to easily keep track of sites we find interesting? Are bookmarks really a necessary feature at this juncture?

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