Summary

Internet Explorer is significantly more secure than Microsoft's previous browser versions. It has dozens of new security features and stronger default settings. The main new features are Protected Mode, Anti-Phishing filter, Addon Management, better ActiveX control, and improved digital certificate handling. IE should make drive-by-downloads more difficult to pull off for malicious hackers. However, IE is one of the most attacked pieces of software in the world. The weaknesses covered in this chapter, plus other ones that hackers are sure to come up with, mean that IE will continue to be successfully hacked in the future. The real question is whether IE 7 in Vista will result in less successful vulnerabilities, and of lower criticality, than its predecessors.

Chapter 9 will cover Internet Information Service 7.