Microsoft Warns Against Using Safari

Posted by Microments 20 September, 2009

June 1st, 2008

Microsoft on Friday warned of a serious risk to people who use Safari on Windows XP or Vista, going so far as to suggest people “restrict use of Safari as a web browser until an appropriate update is available from Microsoft and/or Apple.”

Good news is that according to Redmond there aren’t yet any known attacks against the flaw. Bad news is that if anyone does create such an attack, a crook could install any software he wished – such as ‘bot’ malware that allows for complete remote control – on a victim PC.

The threat targets two separate flaws, one in Safari and one in IE, and you’d have to first browse a malicious site with Safari. Doing so would download unwanted software onto your desktop, which could then be executed without your permission by triggering a separate flaw in IE (and you wouldn’t have to start IE to get hit). In its security advisory, Microsoft acknowledges the critical risk of ‘remote code execution,’ which is as bad as it gets.

Apple, on the other hand, says “we are not treating this as a security issue,” according to a quoted e-mail posted by stopbadware.org. Not a good move, if you ask me.

If you do use Safari, Microsoft says you can apply a workaround to protect yourself. Change the default download location (normally the desktop) in Safari with the following steps:

Launch Safari. Under the Edit menu select Preferences.

At the option where it states Save Downloaded Files to:, select a different location on the local drive.

Safari Flaw Worse Than First Thought, Microsoft Warns

Microsoft is warning that a previously disclosed flaw in Apple’s Safari browser could have dire consequences for Windows users.

The Safari bug, originally disclosed on May 15 by security researcher Nitesh Dhanjani, allows attackers to litter a victim’s desktop with executable files, an attack known as “carpet bombing.”

It turns out that if this flaw is exploited in combination with a second unpatched bug in Internet Explorer, attackers can run unauthorized software on a victim’s computer, according to Aviv Raff, a security researcher. Raff says he originally reported the IE flaw to Microsoft more than a year ago, and then told them about how it could be combined with the carpet bombing bug just over a week ago.

IDG News Service tested Raff’s demonstration attack code, which runs Windows Calculator on a victim’s system. For the attack to work, a victim must first visit a maliciously crafted Web page with the Safari browser, which in turn will trigger the carpet bombing attack and exploit the IE flaw.

Both the Safari and IE bugs “are moderate vulnerabilities that, combined, produce a critical flaw, which allows remote code execution,” Raff said in an instant message interview.

Microsoft is taking the issue seriously. It released a security advisory on the problem late Friday, a sign that it may be working on a patch for the IE flaw. The advisory says that the vulnerability has to do with the way Windows handles desktop executables and recommends that Windows users “restrict use of Safari as a web browser until an appropriate update is available from Microsoft and/or Apple.”

The attack reportedly affects all versions of Windows XP and Vista, Microsoft said.

Apple may not be rushing out to patch this bug, however. Dhanjani says that Apple has told him that it is not treating the Safari bug as a security issue, a response that has generated criticism from the security community. Last week, for example, the consumer advocacy group Stopbadaware.org urged Apple to reconsider this stance.

According to Raff, unless Apple patches the bug, more attacks like the one he found in IE are likely to pop up. “This is not the only issue that can be combined with the Safari vulnerability,” he said. “If Microsoft fixes this, Safari users will still be vulnerable.”

Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.