Internet Explorer 6 usage drops below 5 percent in September

Windows 8 growth also suffers a substantial slow down. 

by Peter Bright

After surging in August, Windows 8's growth slowed down in September. Microsoft's newest operating system is still growing, however, and now it has more than twice as many users as Windows XP. One striking point is that Windows 8.1 already accounts for about ten percent of the Windows 8.x user base—no doubt a mix of people running the preview release and some number running the final release build.

Over in browser land, Internet Explorer now claims a slim majority of the market. Although the browser has long had a majority share of the desktop browsing pie, the abundance of mobile browsing has kept it sub-50 percent over all. In September the share of mobile users as a proportion of the whole appeared to drop (from about 13 percent to about 11 percent) with the desktop proportion rising accordingly. This diminished level of mobile browsing is enough to push Microsoft's browser over the 50 percent threshold of combined mobile and desktop usage.

READ MORE: Critical Internet Explorer exploit code released in the wild

In spite of that, Internet Explorer's share of the desktop declined in September, dropping 0.58 points. Chrome rose by the exact same amount, 0.58 points. Firefox and Opera declined negligibly, losing 0.13 and 0.05 points, respectively. Safari largely picked up the balance, gaining 0.17 points.

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In the mobile space, some of the volatility and large month-to-month variation seems to be settling down somewhat. Safari showed its third month of decline, losing 1.31 points. Android Browser is up for the fourth month in a row, gaining 0.59 points, and Chrome is up for its eighth month in a row, gaining 0.76 points.

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Microsoft saw another slowdown in September too: the transition from older versions of Internet Explorer to version 10 also slowed last month. Internet Explorer 10 was still up, adding 0.6 points, but this is a long way off the growth seen in June through August. The phenomenally obsolete Internet Explorer 6 dropped below 5 percent, down 1.4 points on August. With luck, this loss will be a permanent change and not merely a short-lived anomaly: using Internet Explorer 6 to browse the Web is nowadays a very miserable experience, with major sites incompatible with the ancient browser.

Courtesy: arstechnica

By: Unknown On 6:55 AM

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Critical Internet Explorer exploit code released in the wild

Two weeks after zero-day attacks were disclosed, attack code goes mainstream. 

by Dan Goodin

Attack code that exploits a critical vulnerability in all supported versions of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser has been publicly released.

Monday's release of a module for the Metasploit exploit framework used by security professionals and hackers could broaden the base of attackers who are capable of targeting the flaw. Until now, the bug has been known to be exploited in only a handful of highly targeted attacks aimed mostly at workers in Japanese government agencies and manufacturers. While the attack code has been available to anyone who knows where to find it, its inclusion in the open-source Metasploit could make it easier for some people to use.

Microsoft issued a temporary fix for the browser two weeks ago. The company, which is scheduled to release its next batch of security updates on October 8, hasn't said when it will issue a permanent patch.

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One of the groups carrying out the attacks is the same one that installed malware on computers belonging to security firm Bit9. The group has planted exploits on compromised websites known to be frequented by government and manufacturing employees. The exploits are used to remotely execute code that installs rootkit-style malware that's used to download sensitive data from the infected machines. While the exploits target versions 8 and 9 of IE running on Windows XP and Windows 7 respectively, the "use after free" vulnerability is present in IE versions 10 and 11 as well, Microsoft has said.

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Out of an abundance of caution, Windows users should be sure to install the temporary fix it regardless of the browser they regularly use.

Courtesy: arstechnica

By: Unknown On 5:12 PM

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