I know you’re probably wondering who even uses Internet Explorer these days. But you’ll be surprised to know that the Internet Explorer 11.0 is the second most popular browser version after Chrome 60.0. If you happen to be a regular or even an intermittent IE user, I have some bad news for you. Turns out a new IE bug is giving hackers complete access to everything you type in the address bar – websites, search queries, you name it!
The bug was first reported by a researcher Manuel Caballero two days ago, who in a blog post describes how hackers are accessing user’s online activity.
“When a script is executed inside an object-HTML tag, the location object will get confused and return the main location instead of its own. To be precise, it will return the text written in the address bar so whatever the user types there will be accessible by the attacker.”
Here’s a proof of concept video from Caballero to help you better understand how the bug works.
Even though Microsoft rolled out Edge, a brand new browser with Windows 10, it still isn’t as popular as Internet Explorer. According to NetMarketShare, IE popularity stacks up as 17% to Edge’s 6%.
While it is understandable that Microsoft eventually wants as many people to move to Edge, it doesn’t mean that Internet Explorer’s security protocols should be compromised. Till the bug is fixed, use another browser temporarily or just move to a better browser altogether.
