There's a browser safer than Firefox...
...it is Firefox, with NoScript!
The NoScript Firefox extension provides extra protection for Firefox, Seamonkey and other mozilla-based browsers: this free, open source add-on allows JavaScript, Java and Flash and other plugins to be executed only by trusted web sites of your choice (e.g. your online bank), and provides the most powerful Anti-XSS protection available in a browser.
NoScript's unique whitelist based pre-emptive script blocking approach prevents exploitation of security vulnerabilities (known and even not known yet!) with no loss of functionality...
You can enable JavaScript, Java and plugin execution for sites you trust with a simple left-click
on the NoScript status bar icon (look at the picture), or
using the contextual menu, for easier operation in popup statusbar-less windows.
Watch the "Block scripts in Firefox" video
by cnet.
Staying safe has never been so easy!
Experts will agree: Firefox is really safer with NoScript!
sponsored link:
- Free Norton Free Antivirus Download here.
V. 2.1.0.3 - Makes Firefox 4 the Safest Browser in Town!
If you find any bug or you'd like an enhancement, before reporting here or here, please check if it's fixed in latest development build. Many thanks!
Main good news
- Enhanced Google Analytics Surrogate Script.
- Fixed Yahoo! Toolbar incompatibility.
- Several performance optimiziations, with halved startup time.
- Transparent Firefox Sync support, to share all your NoScript settings across multiple workstations (disabled by default, can be activated by setting the noscript.sync.enabled about:config preference to true.
- Several optimizations for Firefox 4.
- Improved anti-XSS protection against potential risks from new HTML 5 features.
- Automatic fallback for some types of AJAX-rendered web pages (e.g. on Gawker's sites) via Google's _escaped_fragment_ recommendation.
- More reliable WAN IP detection for router protection.
- Better out-of-the-box compatibility with Paypal buttons on non whitelisted sites.
- Do Not Track feature updated to the new "official" DNT HTTP header.
- Restored status bar label by popular demand.
- Update localizations.
- Security and Privacy Info page is shown whenever you middle-click on sites exposed by NoScript's UI, either in the menus or in the Whitelist options tab.
- Improved HTTPS enforcement engine.
- Middle clicking NoScript's toolbar button temporarily allows all on current page.
- Strict X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff support, to prevent "upsniffing" of script, image and stylesheet content, in addition to the inclusion type checks already enforced by NoScript on cross-site requests. This features lets Firefox 4 + NoScript (in "Allow Scripts Globally" mode!) achieve a 14/16 score on Browserscope's Security Test.
- More compliant HSTS implementation.
- Full protection against Aviv Raff's scriptless tabnagging variant, by blocking refreshes triggered on unfocused untrusted tabs. See the changelog for more details.
Experts do agree...
08/06/2008, "I'd love to see it in there." (Window Snyder, "Chief Security Something-or-Other" at Mozilla Corp., interviewed by ZDNet about "adding NoScript functionality into the core browser").
03/18/2008, "Consider switching to the Firefox Web browser with the NoScript plug-in. NoScript selectively, and non-intrusively, blocks all scripts, plug-ins, and other code on Web pages that could be used to attack your system during visits" (Rich Mogull on TidBITS, Should Mac Users Run Antivirus Software?).
11/06/2007, Douglas Crockford, world-famous JavaScript advocate and developer of JSON (one of the building blocks of Web 2.0), recommends using NoScript.
03/16/2007, SANS Internet Storm Center, the authoritative source
of computer security related wisdom, runs a front-page
Ongoing interest in Javascript issues
diary entry by William Stearns just to say "Please, use NoScript" :)
Actually, NoScript has been recommended several times by SANS,
but it's nice to see it mentioned in a dedicated issue,
rather than as a work-around for specific exploits in the wild.
Many thanks, SANS!
05/31/2006, PC World's The 100 Best Products of the Year list features NoScript at #52!
Many thanks to PC World, of course, for grokking NoScript so much, and to IceDogg who kindly reported these news...
In the press...
- CNET News: "Giorgio Maone's NoScript script-blocking plug-in is the one-and-only Firefox add-on I consider mandatory." (March 9, 2009, Dennis O'Reilly, Get a new PC ready for everyday use)
- Forbes: "The real key to defeating malware isn't antivirus but approaches like Firefox's NoScript plug-in, which blocks Web pages from running potentially malicious programs" (Dec 11, 2008, Andy Greenberg, Filter The Virus Filters).
- PC World: Internet Explorer 7 Still Not Safe Enough because it doesn't act like "NoScript [...] an elegant solution to the problem of malicious scripting" (cite bite)
- New York Times: "[...] NoScript, a plug-in utility, can limit the ability of remote programs to run potentially damaging programs on your PC", (Jan 7, 2007, John Markoff, Tips for Protecting the Home Computer).
- PC World's Ten Steps Security features using NoScript as step #6. (cite bite)
- The Washington Post security blog compares MSIE "advanced" security features (like so called "Zones") to Firefox ones and recommends NoScript adoption as the safest and most usable approach. (cite bite)
