Comments on: Microsoft introduces ultra-secure web browser

By: Chip

Chip — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:37:59 +0000

… via a modal pop-up. ;)

I’ve heard that MS is planning to tone UAC down a bit for Windows 7.

By: Chip

Chip — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:36:16 +0000

You’re probably right about that. But the issue of browser security is a hot one for Microsoft, and both Chrome and OP have made the case for using separate processes to limit risk. I think this one will see the light of day sometime, though who knows in what form.

By: gadgetnut

gadgetnut — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:30:06 +0000

If it works like the Vista security model, you’ll have to separately approve each cookie, each image, each block of text loading in the web page. ;-)

By: Adrian Roman

Adrian Roman — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 07:46:56 +0000

What I meant to say is that Gazelle looks more like a university research project sponsored by Microsoft than like a real line of product development.

I suppose Microsoft sponsores hundreds of such projects and only several of them ever get to market.

By: Chip

Chip — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:20:47 +0000

I’d argue that IE is insecure by design. Allowing ActiveX controls and native-language add-ons means that the browser will always be as insecure as the combined malevolence or stupidity of the authors of those components.

By: Chip

Chip — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:14:35 +0000

What do you mean by “sustained by them”? The first three researchers listed have microsoft.com email addresses.

I expect that the performance problems can be overcome, and are mostly due to the ugly hack used to create the prototype — a lot of the code is used simply to prevent the WebBrowser control from performing its default actions, and the kernel is unoptimized C#. I would expect both of those features to change radically before any product comes out of this.

By: Chip

Chip — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:07:23 +0000

Who knows — it could end up being open source if it ever becomes a product at all. It still has a long way to go.

By: Cable Guy

Cable Guy — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:33:49 +0000

Every new microsoft browser is super secure until the first security holes are found-

By: Cable Guy

Cable Guy — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:31:51 +0000

Every new Microsoft browser is super secure. Until, of course, the first security holes are found. Same old story-

By: Adrian Roman

Adrian Roman — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 14:26:09 +0000

This is not a Microsoft project, it’s only sustained by them. The idea is interesting but taking into account the performance problems I doubt it will ever get to market.

By: Sampi

Sampi — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:24:12 +0000

It sounds like a very ambitious project. Its too bad its not open source but if it does become the most secure browser I would gladly change my position as Mozilla’s #1 fanboy.

By: Chip

Chip — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:02:23 +0000

If it does ever get to market — even if it uses the same rendering engine, you’re still correct to say that compatibility tests would be needed. Especially when it comes to how scripts work. The strict security model could easily disable a lot of scripts, and maybe even some CSS.