Glowing with the success of getting one up on Microsoft, with the browser voting screen, Opera are now joining Microsoft's ranks in a less welcome way...

Security experts are warning users to avoid Opera, as the new version (and possibly older versions) have a serious vulnerability.

Basically, when a browser downloads an object, it asks for the metadata about that object, including its size. If an overly large 64-bit size is sent, causing the upper 32-bits to be negative, Opera doesn't react properly and the result is a buffer overflow, which could lead to remote code execution. As every object downloaded contains this metadata, the user doesn't have to initiate a file download, they can just visit a site with manipulated objects (script include files, images, sound, video etc.).

http://secunia.com/advisories/38820/

I'm sorry I know I shouldn't laugh but having seen all the M$ bashing ( mostly deserved ) / Apple praising over the years on our old forums I really find this funny.

Sad but funny.

^+1.

You do know Opera isn't an Apple product? Are you thinking of Safari?

Oops yes

I did wonder!

Opera was the most secure of the browsers at one point. Though 64 bits data was something that they should have prepared for. HAving said that the new version of Opera is doing very well according to download figures.

Now that people are being told to choose, a small fraction will try on of the different browsers out of curiosity. Opera simply don't have enought publicity / reputation among general users for there to be any other reason.



Yes you should