Re: LYNX-DEV warning: applets flying about

[Michael Ritzert]

The german publication "Der Spiegel" discussed this in its issue
7/1997. They wrote that MS' security leve "high" permitted only
controls which identidied themselves with a so called
authenticode. This protected against modification of the control on
its way rthrough the net, but it did not protect against malicously
coding authors. If MSIE encountered such an authenticode it would not
issue any warning any more. The Speigel also wrote you could buy an
authenticode against a registration fee of $ 20.

A spokesman of the DFN-CERT (security group of the german research
network) stated according to the article, that a security concept of
MSIE was simply not present.

You should consider that ActiveX controls are bound to wintel
machines, and that the security holes in the platform independent
competitive java applets are much less severe due to the concept of java.

Michael Ritzert
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