Hang in there, Internet Explorer peeps: Gaping zero-day fix coming Tues

Microsoft is preparing to close a wide-open security hole in Internet Explorer - a vulnerability state-backed spies are exploiting to mine organisations across Asia. A update to fix the flaw is among four critical patches Redmond has lined up for the October edition of Patch Tuesday, due next week. Versions 6 through to 11 of …

[Steve Davies 3]

How many more of these are there to fix?

Has anyone been counting the number fixed so far?

Will MS ever say, 'enough already!' and re-write the whole things. At the moment IE seems more akin to a pile of steaming dog-poo.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: How many more of these are there to fix?

I have. IE has had fewer holes than have been in Chrome, Firefox or Safari ever since IE7 onwards.....

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: How many more of these are there to fix?

"I have. IE has had fewer holes than have been in Chrome, Firefox or Safari ever since IE7 onwards....."

And how many FF vulnerabilities are serious enough to allow a rootkit installation like this IE vuln. is merely by browsing a web-page containing a .jpg ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: How many more of these are there to fix?

"And how many FF vulnerabilities are serious enough to allow a rootkit installation like this IE vuln. is merely by browsing a web-page containing a .jpg ?"

FF has had a lot more "highly critical" vulnerabilities than any recent version of IE:

http://secunia.com/advisories/product/43196/?task=statistics

[02X7Cm]

Surely...

your readership aren't using IE unless forced to by some obscure web-page that still uses javascript pop-ups to alert users that they need to use IE and whose servers are hacked into since late 2000 but to-date nobody within the orgnisation even know why there are occasionally out-going traffic spikes the size of their entire DB to a obscure IP.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Surely...

I had to use IE the other day simple because no other browser would work on the site.

I tried FireFox, Chrome, Safari and Opera.

Shitheads who designed the site need to be strung up by their dangly bits

[John Smith 19]

Re: Surely...

"Shitheads who designed the site need to be strung up by their dangly bits"

Name and shame them.

[ecofeco]

Re: Surely...

"I had to use IE the other day simple because no other browser would work on the site."

I've run into this at the corporate level where the only way to use an outside vendor's service, in this case, Big Name banks (which one? all of them) was with IE because that's what the specialized corporate customer software was written for.

To make it even more fun, you had to, HAD TO, have the latest Java updates or it still wouldn't work. Only problem with that was that the Java updates BROKE some in-house specialized software that, wait for it... handled certain accounting subroutines. Namely, the one where you first gathered your data to, wait for it again... send to the bank.

[James Boag]

ire Surley

Most people only need it to update the immune deficient OS that it's attached to !

[Stoke the atom furnaces]

IE rocks

IE rocks - at downloading Firefox.

[channel extended]

Patch not Aprroved!

If this is one of the holes that the NSA has been using to infect machines, I want to know if they will allow MS to actually fix the hole or just cover with a patch that can be by-passed?

[John Smith 19]

So will MS have to ship another load of "Zero days" to the NSA?

I'll note that this would be SOP for any company with a)US HQ b)US offices or c)Staff who are American citizens.

[Mark Simon]

This time for sure …

Getting IE to work properly is like Bullwinkle trying to pull a rabbit out of his hat.

And it’s funny because nobody uses IE any more, do they? What? Some moron in IT still thinks it’s easier to manage?

What I can’t understand is why a vulnerability that’s been known exploited for a month is called zero-day. Shouldn’t it be called –30 day?