News Source: Earthtimes.org
Posted : Fri, 15 Jun 2007 15:00:00GMT
Author : Abdul-Salaam Masheer
Apple's release of its browser Safari for Windows has been touted as a big hit by the company, stating that over a million copies have been downloaded in the first two days of its release.
Apple decided to expand the Mac-specific browser as a direct challenge to Microsoft's Internet Explorer. However problems surfaced immediately and the company had to rush in a patch to fix three flaws for the beta. An Apple spokesman said that while two of the flaws are minor, a third flaw can crash the browser.
"Apple issued an update to the Safari for Windows public beta today to fix the security vulnerabilities that were reported earlier this week. Safari updates are delivered to beta testers through Apple's Software Update Application", the spokesman said.
An Apple Advisory warned that attackers can execute an arbitrary code by exploiting the flaw in the browser. It went on to say that the issue has come to notice only for the Windows version of the browser and Mac OS X users have no threat from the flaw.
"By enticing a user to visit a maliciously crafted Web page, an attacker can trigger the issue which may lead to arbitrary code execution. This update addresses the issue by performing additional processing and validation of URLs. This does not pose a security issue on Mac OS X systems, but could lead to an unexpected termination of the Safari browser", the advisory said.
Apple claims that the Safari 3 browser is 2 times faster than IE7 and 1.6 times faster than Firefox 2 depending on the system configuration. Minimum requirements for the Safari 3 browser Windows XP or Windows Vista, 256 MB of memory and a 500 MHz Intel Pentium processor.
Related stories:
1. Wired.com: Who in Their Right Mind Would Run Safari on Windows?
2. AHN: Safari Download Hits 1M; Only 3 Bugs Patched In Latest Release
3. Techworld: Safari for Windows: Why?
To download Safari [BETA] for Windows from Apple: Click here