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Window Snyder Says Firefox Fixed Faster
David Utter
Staff Writer
2008-01-18
 Security News RSS Feed
In response to a publication's comparison of Firefox and Internet Explorer fix times, Snyder showed how they missed a few key points.
Snyder referred to a report on TechWorld based on predictions from security advisory firm Secunia. The report, titled Red Hat and Firefox more buggy than Microsoft," noted Secunia showed more bugs for Firefox than Internet Explorer in 2007.
"Counting security vulnerabilities to compare the security of different software projects is flawed," Snyder said of that methodology. " It is only a useful metric if you are comparing a project to itself over time."
Snyder performed some comparisons based on what TechWorld said. She illustrated some interesting points on "real risk to users":
"'[Z]ero-day' security bugs in Firefox were patched more quickly than in Microsoft Internet Explorer…"
"[I]n an examination of zero-day flaws - reported by third parties before a patch was available - Secunia found that Firefox tended to get more patches, sooner, compared to IE."
"Out of eight zero-day bugs reported for Firefox in 2007, five have been patched, three of those in just over a week. Out of 10 zero-day IE bugs, only three were patched and the shortest patch time was 85 days."
Firefox has enjoyed a long reputation of getting its most critical fixes out to users in short order. That reputation still looks deserved. "Read past the headlines - Firefox is fixed faster," said Snyder.
About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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