7/19/2023 0 Comments Iexplorer serial keyThe attackers complemented Office documents with a malicious ActiveX element, which allowed remote code execution after the user opened the trojanized file. What’s more, at the time of discovery, the vulnerability was already being exploited in attacks on Microsoft Office users. It was discovered in the MSHTML engine of Internet Explorer in 2021. The only real difference between “before” and “after” IE disabling is that it might become a bit harder to exploit this vulnerable browser in certain types of attacks.Īs a vivid illustration of what can go wrong, we can recall the vulnerability CVE-2021-40444. The problem is that along with the hopelessly obsolete browser all its vulnerabilities (plus yet-undiscovered ones) will remain in the system. They will still be able to run Internet Explorer as a standalone browser. In other words, users of these operating systems haven’t received even above mentioned changes. Windows 10 IoT Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC), all versions.Windows Server Semi-Annual Channel (SAC), all versions.Windows 7 Extended Security Updates (ESU).Microsoft has kindly published a list of these exclusions: There’s a whole raft of operating systems excluded from getting the update that turns IE off. The patch to disable IE doesn’t work on all systemsĮven the disabling of Explorer wasn’t absolute. Consequently, Explorer will continue to inhabit Windows until Microsoft finally decides to bury IE compatibility mode. And in it, if you really want to, you can select IE compatibility mode. Now if you try to open Explorer, Edge will run instead. This means that Explorer is still alive - if not quite kicking: it’s there just to ensure the operation of this mode. However, Edge, formally the only browser in Windows, still has an IE-compatible mode. In practice, this means that Explorer can no longer be launched as a standalone browser (this time for sure). The first thing to realize about the Windows update is that it doesn’t expunge Explorer from the operating system it disables it. But, upon closer inspection, it turns out that the old dog is still breathing!… Disable doesn’t mean delete A coup de grace, ending this cruel agony. And Explorer itself was still present in the system, so, after a spot of tinkering, it was still possible to run it.Ī couple of years after that, just recently in February 2023, news broke that Microsoft had finally finished off Explorer in its latest update. However, Edge still retained its IE compatibility mode. It was now no longer possible to boot up and use Explorer as a standalone browser - theoretically at least. In 2021, Microsoft released its new Windows 11. And Explorer was still left in the system. This browser, too, had an IE compatibility mode. Three years later, in December 2018, came phase two: Microsoft abandoned further attempts to develop its own engine and unveiled an all-new version of Edge, this time based on Chromium. So began the dual-browser period, when both Edge and Explorer were preinstalled in Windows, which (another spoiler) continues to this day. However, Explorer, in its eleventh and final version, was still integrated into the operating system. Of course, Edge featured an IE compatibility mode. The original version of Edge was powered by Microsoft’s own EdgeHTML engine, a modification of the MSHTML (also known as Trident), on which Internet Explorer was based. That said, Microsoft’s first official acknowledgment of this fact came only in 2015.īack then, along with unveiling Windows 10, the company announced it was closing down Internet Explorer’s development and introducing Edge as the default browser for Windows, signifying the first phase of IE’s decommissioning. We can consider 2012 as the end of the Explorer era, when Chrome finally overtook it. However, since the introduction of Chrome in 2008, Explorer’s popularity has been steadily falling away. It’s hard to believe it now, but Explorer was even more dominant than the current champion, Google Chrome, is now. We remind those who didn’t witness (or have forgotten) the 2000s that, back then, Internet Explorer ruled the web, with a browser market share of more than 90%. Internet Explorer: life and death chronicles Let’s recap the long story of how the once most-popular browser in the world was gradually disconnected from its life-support systems, and investigate whether it’s finally time to rejoice (spoiler: it isn’t). Not so long ago, the IT-security media space was once again full of cheery reports that Microsoft was finally burying Internet Explorer (IE).
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