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General discussion

Another Way to Approach IE Security

Dec 10, 2003 12:48AM PST

If you use Windows, you have Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) installed. You might choose not to use it and instead use some other Web browser such as Mozilla or Opera, but IE is still installed, and some of your Web activity might require its use. For example, you can't download patches from Microsoft's Windows Update Web site without using IE. In addition, some Web sites are designed exclusively for IE and might not function properly with other browsers.

Thor Larholm, senior security researcher at PivX Solutions, recently posted a message to the NTBugtraq mailing list that points out another way to strengthen IE security. Larholm said that he uses IE with confidence even when a vulnerability is known and a patch isn't yet available. Instead of leaving the My Computer zone configured with loose security, he locks it down to some extent. He also loosens the Internet Zone configuration to let components such as ActiveX controls and Javascript operate to improve the Web browsing experience.

http://www.ntbugtraq.com/default.asp?pid=36&sid=1&A2=ind0312&L=ntbugtraq&P=396

I think Larholm's approach makes good sense. You might consider trying it, but instead of manually adjusting the My Computer registry settings, you might consider using a utility to help automate the tasks to reduce your chances of error. PivX is beta testing a new utility called Qwik-Fix, which automates registry adjustments and strengthens the security of other subsystems, settings, and software such as remote procedure call (RPC)/Distributed COM (DCOM), MIME types, Windows Messenger, and Adobe streams. You can learn more about it at the URL below.

http://www.pivx.com/qwikfix

http://www.winnetmag.com/WindowsSecurity/Article/ArticleID/41138/WindowsSecurity_41138.html

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