Avant Browser and Disabling vulnerabilities

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Sun May 14, 2006 10:31 am

Because I occasionally need to use sites that do not run optimally with either Opera or Firefox, I have decided to give Avant a whirl, since it is built on the IE Engine, yet has far more useful features than IE itself.

So far, I am actually quite impressed. It is *very* fast, has tabbed browsing and some excellent built in popup and ad blockers. The skins that come packaged with Avant are attractive as well.

My question is this. Under "Tools" I have the option to disable what may be potential security loopholes. I have already disabled ActiveX, since this is a well known risk, but I am not sure about the others listed. They are:
* Flash animations
* videos
* scripts
* Java Applets

Thanks!

DaemonJ · Post by **DaemonJ** » Sun May 14, 2006 4:55 pm

[QUOTE=dragon wench]Because I occasionally need to use sites that do not run optimally with either Opera or Firefox, I have decided to give Avant a whirl, since it is built on the IE Engine, yet has far more useful features than IE itself.

So far, I am actually quite impressed. It is *very* fast, has tabbed browsing and some excellent built in popup and ad blockers. The skins that come packaged with Avant are attractive as well.[/quote]
Thanks for passing that along. I will have to give them a try.

[QUOTE=dragon wench]My question is this. Under "Tools" I have the option to disable what may be potential security loopholes. I have already disabled ActiveX, since this is a well known risk, but I am not sure about the others listed. They are:
* Flash animations
* videos
* scripts
* Java Applets

Thanks![/QUOTE]
Flash animations are up to you. If you like to see them and don't mind having to click through splash pages to get to a site then you can probably leave them enabled. This isn't a very popular payload delivery method simply because the Flash would have to be excellent in order for it to get passed around a lot and anybody with that much graphic talent has better things to do than play with viruses.

Videos are again up to you but they are also not usually the source of infection.

Scripts are the typical places where security holes, exploits, and other things are placed. This is usually JavaScript but unfortunately provides a lot of functionality on sites. In general, it is better to turn off scripting and if a site or it's navigation doesn't work then try enabling scripting for that site or temporarily, depending upon what options are available.

Java applets should be turned off. Very few sites use them and those that do should tell you or have a mention that you need to have Java enabled along with a download link to get it if needed. If a site doesn't mention needing Java and uses an applet then you should probably stay away from it.

I hope the above makes sense but if I missed anything or was unclear please let me know.

BTW, Happy Mother's Day DW!

DaemonJ · Post by **DaemonJ** » Sun May 14, 2006 5:06 pm

Now that I've gotten a chance to check into the Avant Browser, I also found that the developer is working on a Gekko Engine based browser named Orca.

It is still in the Alpha stage, but if you want to give it a peek you can find it [url="http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/Orca_Browser/1128532815/1"]here[/url].
The support forums for Orca are still at the Avant forums though, toward the bottom.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Sun May 14, 2006 8:43 pm

@Daemon,
thanks for the information on the vulnerabilities, much appreciated
Oh, and also cheers with regards to the day.

I just took a look at your link. This is definitely something to bear in mind. Though, I'm wondering how Orca will handle those sites designed with IE in mind... This is the reason I decided to try out Avant; it works well on such sites but is much better than IE.

I still prefer Opera and Firefox, but Avant is a nice option when I go to certain government sites and the like.

DaemonJ · Post by **DaemonJ** » Sun May 14, 2006 10:06 pm

[QUOTE=dragon wench]@Daemon,
thanks for the information on the vulnerabilities, much appreciated
Oh, and also cheers with regards to the day.

[/quote]
You are welcome on both counts.

[QUOTE=dragon wench]I just took a look at your link. This is definitely something to bear in mind. Though, I'm wondering how Orca will handle those sites designed with IE in mind... This is the reason I decided to try out Avant; it works well on such sites but is much better than IE.[/quote]
Avant will still be the better choice.

I know that you are in Canada and I haven't done any work with the Canadian Government so I cannot comment. But I can say that the US Government and Military are standardized on the Microsoft platform and other browsers are not even tested when an application or web site is developed.

I just provided the link to the Orca browser in case you wanted to try an alternative to Firefox and Opera once it is fully developed.

[QUOTE=dragon wench]I still prefer Opera and Firefox, but Avant is a nice option when I go to certain government sites and the like.[/QUOTE]
Most definitely.

Rookierookie · Post by **Rookierookie** » Sun May 14, 2006 10:59 pm

I simply install the IETab plugin for Firefox.

dj_venom · Post by **dj_venom** » Mon May 15, 2006 3:06 am

Just a question, some sites had code in to make it IE only. So does this browser sneak past these, or is it just good for the sites designed for IE, and look really bad in Firefox?

Rookierookie · Post by **Rookierookie** » Mon May 15, 2006 3:11 am

Using the IE core, I assume Avant would have no problem identifying itself as IE. After all, they can't recognize which incantation of the core it is, they can only recognize whether it is IE, Gecko, or Opera core.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Mon May 15, 2006 9:31 am

@Daemon,
Thanks for the link, I'll likely look into Orca when they have completed the testing.

@DJV,
You can normally only take full advantage of Gmail's features with either Firefox or IE. I have found that all of Gmail's html coding, chat etc. also work well with Avant. Equally, I ended up trading my Hotmail account for Windows Live Mail Beta. It would only really work properly with IE, but Avant handles it flawlessly. I have also found that some of our IE geared government sites (like filling out our latest census forms) work without a hitch using Avant.

@Rookie,
cheers for the extension mention, that is also worth bearing in mind.

Vicsun · Post by **Vicsun** » Mon May 15, 2006 10:27 am

[QUOTE=dj_venom]Just a question, some sites had code in to make it IE only. So does this browser sneak past these, or is it just good for the sites designed for IE, and look really bad in Firefox?[/QUOTE]
Apart from the extra features Avant sports, Avant and Internet Explorer are the exact same browser, so naturally pages which break other browsers but display properly in IE will also display properly in Avant.

dj_venom · Post by **dj_venom** » Tue May 16, 2006 1:28 am

[QUOTE=dragon wench]@DJV,
You can normally only take full advantage of Gmail's features with either Firefox or IE. I have found that all of Gmail's html coding, chat etc. also work well with Avant. Equally, I ended up trading my Hotmail account for Windows Live Mail Beta. It would only really work properly with IE, but Avant handles it flawlessly. I have also found that some of our IE geared government sites (like filling out our latest census forms) work without a hitch using Avant.[/QUOTE]

Hmmm, I may have to look into it, thanks for that.

DaemonJ · Post by **DaemonJ** » Tue May 16, 2006 2:57 am

You both should remember or be aware that regardless of the browser being used, the browser identification string can be modified.

For example, using an Opera browser the ID string provided can be that of IE 5.5 or whatever is chosen. With some browsers it is a simple setting while others require a manual change.

Vicsun · Post by **Vicsun** » Wed May 17, 2006 2:19 am

[QUOTE=DaemonJ]You both should remember or be aware that regardless of the browser being used, the browser identification string can be modified.

For example, using an Opera browser the ID string provided can be that of IE 5.5 or whatever is chosen. With some browsers it is a simple setting while others require a manual change.[/QUOTE]
The problem is usually browsers not rendering sites correctly, not sites purposefully refusing to display on a specific browser.