also @ TechSpot: Razer brings the arcade experience home with the Atrox Arcade Stick

› ›

Internet Explorer Exposes Sensitive Information

By Thomas McGuire

On June 15, 2003, 5:00 AM

A vulnerability has been identified in Internet Explorer, which exposes sensitive information to "msn.com" & "alexa.com".

While this is a known "feature" when the "Show Related Links" option is activated in Internet Explorer, there is a bug, so that Internet Explorer will keep transmitting the information to "msn.com" & "alexa.com" after "Show Related Links" has been de-activated. This occurs whenever "Ctrl+R" is used to reload a page.

To make matters worse, it has been confirmed that this behaviour also affects SSL enabled pages. 1 thing is that Microsoft has chosen to make a "feature", which reveals this information to "msn.com" & "alexa.com", but the fact that information, which was supposed to be protected by SSL & sent only to 1 site, is sent in plain text to a third party ("msn.com" & "alexa.com") is of great concern.

Would you like to know more?

No tags on this story

4 comments

User Comments: 4

Got something to say? Post a comment
  1. June 15, 2003 7:08 AM
    Phantasm66 said:
    And its another great triumph for Microsoft security! ;)
    Reply
  2. June 15, 2003 9:34 AM
    poertner_1274 said:
    Heh, another reason I don't use IE.
    Reply
  3. June 16, 2003 3:31 PM
    iss said:
    "alexa" is nothing more than spyware. I removed that IE browser "plug-in" a long time ago.
    Reply
  4. June 16, 2003 4:32 PM
    DigitAlex said:
    AdAware and Alexa is OUT !!
    Reply

Recently commented stories

Post a new comment

Social Login & Guest Posting TechSpot Members
Login here or sign up for free,
it takes about a minute.
Get complete access to the TechSpot community. Join thousands of technology enthusiasts that contribute and share knowledge in our forum. Get a private inbox, upload your own photo gallery and more.
TechSpot on:

Most Popular

Trending Featured
More Trending Topics

Featured on Routers

Downloads and Drivers

Downloads   Drivers  

J. River Media Center 18.0.187

ComicRack 0.9.169

Ashampoo UnInstaller 5.03

Files Terminator Free 2.5.0.11

Advanced Host Monitor 9.50

More Downloads

Latest Discussion

Your daily phone 11 replies on Mobile Computing

Unacceptably high disk usage/performance lag Windows 8 42 replies on Windows OS

Bios update help 8 replies on Processors and Motherboards

Best freeware DVD/CD burning software for Windows 7 64-bit 7 replies on Software Apps

Network documentation 6 replies on Storage and Networking

More Recent Discussion

Subscribe to TechSpot

Get free exclusive content, learn about new features and breaking tech news.