03 April 2007, 11:43

New Netscape version leaves numerous vulnerabilities unfixed

Netscape has fixed numerous security vulnerabilities in version 8.1.3 of its eponymous browser - but has left nine critical vulnerabilities unfixed. Since the browser is substantially based on Firefox, users should give earnest consideration to switching to Firefox - where security vulnerabilities are fixed relatively rapidly. Firefox 2.0 also offers similar phishing protection to Netscape.

Some of the 16 remaining vulnerabilities in Netscape have been known about since December - and already fixed at Mozilla. Netscape states that it has now updated its browser to the level of Firefox 1.5.0.8 - the current version is 1.5.0.11. No further functional improvements have been added.

It has been clear since mid-2005 that the Netscape developers were having problems keeping their browser free of bugs and that despite the generally availability of information regarding vulnerabilities, users were therefore surfing for an unnecessarily long time with vulnerable versions.