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Symantec: Mozilla Firefox is least secure Browser

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief April 15, 2008 · 1 min read

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Can’t believe it either but an Internet Security Threat Report by Symantec puts Firefox at the top of the list for the most insecure browser in 2007. See comparative charts after the jump.

According to Symantec, Firefox had 122 reported vulnerabilities last year. That’s more than twice the number of security holes found on MS Internet Explorer.

vulnerability report

Here’s the breakdown:

Mozilla Firefox: 122
Internet Explorer: 57
Safari : 47
Opera: 19

The growing popularity of Firefox may have contributed to the increase in vulnerabilities discovered in the browser. {via: Softpedia}

React to this article:

firefox opera safari

Abe Olandres

Editor-in-chief

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and is considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines.

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61 Comments

Vladimir Pova · 17 years ago

I use Chrome :P Its faster than IE 7 in alot of ways. I do not need to go to google just to use its search engive :D

Gerald Munar · 18 years ago

I use Firefox and it’s really great… :-)

johnxarce · 18 years ago

yup tama kayo ganun talaga opera user ako kaso hindi ako satisfied kaya firefox din gamit ko

JC John SESE Cuneta · 18 years ago

Not really “popularity”, Opera is still very popular but it appears from their study that Opera is the most secure. I would say that Opera’s popularity is more or less the same as FF’s.

Then Safari. Being a new browser for Win-based OS, Safari is doing a great job.

As we all know, most FF problems came from plugins and addons.

Dean · 18 years ago

Are you shitting me?? OMFG, and I thought Firefox was safer than even IE7 (which is why I switched over). So should I go back to IE or stay with FF??

vern · 18 years ago

lol, more people still use IE.

animomedia.com · 18 years ago

I still prefer mozilla.

buddy · 18 years ago

firefox having more reported vulnerabilities doesnt mean IE is any safer. take note that these are just the ones that are brought to the attention of the experts. having more reported vulnerabilities, IMO, means more ground to improve the browser and the reason why IE has less issues is because no one bothers to check it anymore.

Aja · 18 years ago

I stick with Firefox here. That report is even for 2007. How many fixes had MS released since then? Mozilla has sure made many. Performance even got better now that I’m on version 3 beta 5. Open source is way better as it exposes vulnerabilities sooner, therefore making fixes sooner as well.

XpressMusic · 18 years ago

That is really true eversince. Opera is way way more secure and it can prove itself as the fastest browser on earth! IMHO, It doesn’t share the same problem with Firefox that eradicates your ram until it lasts.

RHB · 18 years ago

Fire Fox being free might be a reason to use it, but IE is free with my computer as well. I use both, have to, the statement that more people use Firefox needs checking. My web stats indicate 60-70% of my users are using IE. Not sure what the market share is currently.

gamie · 18 years ago

Fact is that more people are using Firefox than MSIE, Opera and etc. So tendency is that more users will scrutinize the software. We should know that by now, its like asking the same reason why Microsoft OS is more *vulnerable than a Unix OS. You don’t see it if you don’t use it, in this case, more people are using Firefox than any other browser.

I got greater appreciation with Firefox compare to MS for patching problems. The difference is that I get Firefox for free!

vern · 18 years ago

The question people should be asking is the severity of those vulnerabilities. Even if IE had only a single vulnerability, but was a critical one which could compromise control of the system, it’d be a bigger issue than all of FF’s faults. It is more important security wise look at how critical something is and how quickly it can be exploited in the real world beyond a proof of concept. Every vulnerability that needed to be looked at has been fixed with speed by Mozilla … which is more than I can say for Microsoft which has left many bugs in IE in the past for years. IE is also a mature platform, if something has been out for years, it damn right should be secure. FF on the other hand is constantly developed with features and more features.

RHB · 18 years ago

Also, statistics, as many of us are aware, are misleading when you look at raw data, for all the reasons stated above one has to look beyond the numbers.
I try to write code to be compliant with both ie 7-8 and Fire fox, it is difficult for me to get it right for both. Using Dreamweaver there are some issues I have, but it could easily be my inexperience.

randell · 18 years ago

But of course! Symantec’s anti-virus is often bundle in Windows installations.

Ozy · 18 years ago

I always thought that Mozilla was a secure browser but the explanation included does make sense.

Either way, the service of Mozilla has been great. Open source ftw!

Ade · 18 years ago

But Firefox keeps on updating constantly. So isn’t that actually good that they keep on finding flaws to update FF?

John Lloy · 18 years ago

wow mozilla lang talaga nakalagay sa legend so lahat ng products under mozilla bayun?

BrianB · 18 years ago

It’s obvious isn’t it? You should see the firefox on my pc laptop. It’s actually merged with Internet Explorer for some reason and the window got like an empty apron, so if I use that laptop, I’d ether be browsing with Maxthon or Safari.

jhay · 18 years ago

It’s a misleading generalization. Still, I’m sticking with FF. :D

koolitz · 18 years ago

for me, tama lang na mas maraming nakitang vulnerabilities sa FF kasi mas maraming tumitingin sa codes kasi nga opensource at ang mas ok mabilis din maglabas ng fix…ang iba konti lang kasi yun palang ang nakita nila :-)

Tampera · 18 years ago

I think this site should interest u http://www.omfica.org since its ICDL is compatible with existing Semantic Web concepts. Also u can find many democratic principles there, that is a real creation of social mediaâ€¦ All users will benefit from it.

leo · 18 years ago

hi abe, spam daw ang comment ko according to akismet! :)

leo · 18 years ago

i’m still using firefox. i’m using now ff ver. 3.0 B5 for several days already, and imo, it’s getting better and better.

leo · 18 years ago

i’m still using firefox. i’m using now firefox 3 B5 for several days already, and imo, it’s getting better and better.

Percy Cabello · 18 years ago

According to Mozilla Security Bulletins and Secunia, the actual number of reported vulnerabilities is 22. In Firefox.

Symantec reports vulnerabilities for Mozilla based browsers which includes Flock, Camino, SeaMonkey and a few others. The report doesn’t provide more details and since people tends to read Mozilla = Firefox, it is misleading.

More here: http://mozillalinks.org/wp/2008/04/handle-with-care-symantec-on-web-browsers-security/

Jho2x · 18 years ago

I don’t like to used that borwser.. I prefer to used ie8

Kinnison · 18 years ago

FF is open-source anyway, so time will come that they’ll fix that. Besides, the fix rate of holes in FF is still higher compared to IE6 before it was even upgraded to IE7.