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Bring Down Internet Explorer In Six Words

Posted by kdawson on Wed Aug 08, 2007 04:20 AM
from the don't-you-think-she-looks-tired dept.
Bug Internet Explorer Microsoft Security The Internet
Marcion writes "Some handy Japanese guy called Hamachiya discovered a bug in Internet Explorer. Under certain conditions, an asterisk when used as a wildcard can crash IE as soon as the user attempts to go to another page." The article claims the "five HTML tags and a CSS declaration" crash IE7 as well as IE6, but I couldn't get IE7 to fail. This page says that as of June, IE6 was at about 37% market share and IE7 under 20%.
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  • Tear in my eye (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ceeam (39911) on Wednesday August 08 2007, @04:25AM (#20153843)
    I didn't think I'll see the day when browser crashing on something would be a newsworthy item. We - the industry - have made improvements in the last years I guess.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by somersault (912633)
      Either that, or /. is going downhill? That's the pessimist's view anyway ;)

      • Anyway, the article is more of note for the doctor who reference at the start. An amusing piece of nostalgia
        You're nostalgic for something that happened in the 2005 Christmas Special?

        Nostalgia ain't what it used to be...

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Miseph (979059)
        Mac was taking it on the chin prior to about 2003 (when was it that Steve came back again?), their machines were lackluster and their marketing was weak. The release of OSX and their renewed marketing drive has brought them back from obscurity.

        This had nothing to do with FOSS, and everything to do with Apple reclaiming a large chunk of its niche who had moved to Windows (as a group, that is; many of the old school Mac users probably didn't migrate, but new users coming into the traditional Mac niches weren'

  • If you don't speak Japanese.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Dogtanian (588974) on Wednesday August 08 2007, @04:28AM (#20153857) Homepage
    ...then here's a word perfect translation of that article [altavista.com] (courtesy of Babelfish [altavista.com]).

    Erm... then again, maybe not.

    (If you liked that translation, you might enjoy Babelfish's attempt at Slashdot.jp [altavista.com].)

    • Re:If you don't speak Japanese.... (Score:4, Funny)

      by arkhan_jg (618674) on Wednesday August 08 2007, @04:38AM (#20153915)
      From slashdot.jp [altavista.com]:

      When the policeman of the tie, rule you violate, hello punishment of the kitty?

      Heh. I can just imagine a 'tie-inspector' walking round making sure your business attire is up to standard, or else he unleashes an angry cat on you. Or maybe he tortures a cute kitten in front of you, not sure on that point.

    • Re:If you don't speak Japanese.... (Score:4, Informative)

      by uhmmmm (512629) <uhmmmm@NOspAM.gmail.com> on Wednesday August 08 2007, @10:15AM (#20156975) Homepage
      Here's a quick translation I just did:

      Hello! Good afternoon!!!!!
      I stumbled across a browser crash, so today I'll tell you about it!

      Here it is!

      <style>*{position:relative}</style><table><input>< /table>

          Sample (If you're using IE, your browser will close! You have been warned!)

      It seems IE6 or programs using IE6 components will definitely crash!
      I haven't checked IE7 though!

      It seems to be when you have and input or select or such just below a table or tr or such,
      and you use the css wildcard * to set everything to position:relative.

      By the way, if the input has its style directly set to relative, it doesn't crash. What's up with that?
      I don't really get it, but it sure is interesting...!

      Anyone out there who loves Firefox or Opera should go spread this all over and decrease IE's market share!!!

      • I'm for replacing the current Slashdot moderation options with hilarious Engrish ones:

        Oh yeah, "It is strange funny".... that was one I loved. (I've been "reading" Slashdot Japan through Babelfish for quite a while now- that's where my sig comes from).

        However, it's misleading to call these "Engrish", as that normally refers to the use of bad English (or even pseudo-English) by the Japanese.

        By contrast, this is a quaint auto-translation of correctly-written Japanese. Okay, so the "cute" tone is probably down to the differences between Japanese language and culture as well... but it's sti

  • Hmm.. (Score:4, Informative)

    by wumpus188 (657540) on Wednesday August 08 2007, @04:29AM (#20153867)
    It indeed crashes IE here... Windows 2K3, IE7

    • Is it crashed or not? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Dogtanian (588974) on Wednesday August 08 2007, @04:44AM (#20153939) Homepage

      It indeed crashes IE here... Windows 2K3, IE7
      I'm using IE7 bog-standard Windows XP with SP2, and it "crashed" in the manner described for me too. Remember that (as the article states) you have to open a new tab.

      It takes a few seconds to crash after the new tab is opened; that's enough time to type in an auto-completed URL and have it start loading. Strange thing about this is that even though Windows shows the standard "crashed" dialog box for IE, beneath that I can still see (e.g.) Slashdot continue to load in the background until I dismiss the dialog.

      • Re:Is it crashed or not? (Score:5, Informative)

        by Bacon Bits (926911) on Wednesday August 08 2007, @06:49AM (#20154601)
        It's not a crash, per se. It's a forced closure due to an illegal operation of one component of the browser with code in mshtml.dll.

        An exception was thrown that was not properly caught. The error is caused by improper error trapping. Otherwise, the browser would just render things improperly or claim there was an error on the page because it doesn't properly parse and render the style tag.

          • Re:Is it crashed or not? (Score:5, Informative)

            by GooberToo (74388) on Wednesday August 08 2007, @08:05AM (#20155199)
            Pre-tell then, what is a crash?

            When an exception is thrown and is not properly caught. The error is caused by improper error trapping. This is a classic "crash." ;)

                • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

                  by ashitaka (27544)
                  What does your office do? Hopefully nothing to do with computer development.

                  What you just described is an application or process hanging. The app cannot respond to any user inputs or messages from the OS and the app or even the entire system in the worst case becomes unresponsive.

                  When an app or process crashes it is no longer running and under a better-designed OS will have its memory cleaned up in garbage collection.

                  (Developing since 1979)

  • Bring Down A Website In Six Words (Score:5, Funny)

    by millwall (622730) on Wednesday August 08 2007, @04:30AM (#20153871)
    Post
    A
    Crappy
    Article
    On
    Slashdot
  • And we bring down a site [commandline.org.uk] from a link in the OP.

  • Bring down my system in 13 chars. (Score:5, Funny)

    by BlackPignouf (1017012) on Wednesday August 08 2007, @05:02AM (#20154047)
    :(){ :|:& };:

  • No. You're kidding. Can't be. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Opportunist (166417) on Wednesday August 08 2007, @05:11AM (#20154081)
    You can crash IE? Really? With a webpage? Who would have thought?

    Seriously, here's a phone. Call someone who cares. Or at least isn't surprised. Or at least thinks it's newsworthy.

    I don't care if I have to wave karma goodbye now, but sensibly, is there an event running today that tries to see how many really uninteresting, uninspired and utterly pointless "news" can make it to the front page on a single day? Yes, it's possible to crash IE. Hey, breaking news, you can even crash it in a way that allows you to execute arbitrary code. Wow. Teh horrorz.

    This ain't news. It may be a new hole detected, but could we at least get less lurid subject lines that sound like it's the end of the world? How about "new bug in IE detected"? It would have been at least as accurate and more objective. You might get the same "duh, no kidding" replies, but at least people wouldn't make fun of you for making something trivial as an IE bug sound like it's the end of the internet.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by apt142 (574425)
      I think what they considered newsworthy about it is the fact that it can be done in 6 words. Not that the bug exists, but rather how simple it is to crash it. They should have put the foot up there for humor if they wanted to get that across IMHO.

      That being said, crashing IE is only slightly more difficult that tying my shoes.

    • Re:No. You're kidding. Can't be. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by bl8n8r (649187) on Wednesday August 08 2007, @06:48AM (#20154593)
      > Seriously, here's a phone. Call someone who cares. Or at least isn't surprised. Or at least thinks it's newsworthy.

      Attitudes like this are why computer security is in such a dismal state. Crashing an application from a remote system means that application is not filtering it's input correctly and is subject to a remote compromise. Just because IE goes bu-bye and starts right up again doesn't mean everything is peaches. By the time you've restarted the app or rebooted windows, you may have already been compromised with the software of choice by the remote. This cold be a backdoor, keylogger, trojan whatever - and you won't even know it other than "my computer is slow". People need to wise-up because malware is getting sneakier and more cost effective for the people that write it.

      Articles like this are news worthy because it brings light to the fact that something is amiss and needs fixing. Unfortunately, other than negative PR, there's little incentive for proprietary software to fix these things. That's one of the reasons IE has been, and still is, such a security nightmare. Firefox is only about 2/3 better (3 pages vs. 8 pages) judging by number of CVEs*. Still, security is about lessening risk. It's foolish to use IE these days with much better options available.

      [*] - https://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/html/search [cert.org]
      • Yes, browser holes are an issue. Especially with malware packages like MPack around. But does it have to sound like something taken out of Fox' news feed? Can we get news again, instead of the hype we got recently?

        Also, telling someone here about security issues with IE is preaching the choir. We know that. I doubt anyone here doesn't know that there are still security holes in IE. And, for the record, also in FF (just so nobody thinks I'm out to do some MS bashing). Unlike FF, we can't do jack about securi

  • html source is: (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    <style>* {position:relative}
    </style><table><input></table>

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by derrida (918536)
      And here is a link [nyud.net] to test it.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by nschubach (922175)
        And VS2005 puts the problem somewhere around here...

        mshtml.dll! 7dcaac6e() mov eax,dword ptr [ecx+4]

        7DCAAC6C nop
        7DCAAC6D nop
        7DCAAC6E mov eax,dword ptr [ecx+4]
        7DCAAC71 test al,1
        7DCAAC73 jne 7DCB3229
        7DCAAC79 and eax,2
        7DCAAC7C ret
        7DCAAC7D nop

        Not that I have any clue what that means since I never learned assembly :p

  • Dr.Who (Score:3, Funny)

    by gpmidi (891665) on Wednesday August 08 2007, @05:40AM (#20154229) Homepage
    Dr.Who: I can bring down your administration in one word. Prime Minister: One word. Even you aren't capable of that. Dr.Who: Okay, six words. Dr.Who (wispers to aid): Don't you think she looks tired?
  • Alt-F4 gets rid of it much more quickly, and doesn't rely on a Japanese website not having been /.ed.

  • No big deal. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by 140Mandak262Jamuna (970587) on Wednesday August 08 2007, @06:16AM (#20154397) Journal
    First please realize I am no MSFT fanboi, I have been extremely critical of that company in my previous postings.

    MSFT should try to fix the bug that is crashing IE, because crashes in IE have a tendency to become a remote execution bug later. But still, no point in bashing MSFT on this issue. Browsers crashing on malformed input is well known. Firefox, my fav and only browser, too crashes often on malformed input. There is this thing called fuzzing, sending deliberately malformed input to the browser and see what happens. Firefox used to crash more often than IE under fuzzing. Now they provide fuzzing tools for their testers to strengthen mozilla products.

  • Common to Trident? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Stefanwulf (1032430) on Wednesday August 08 2007, @06:26AM (#20154453)
    TFA's servers aren't responding at the moment, so this might be included, but has anyone tried this with non-IE programs which use the Trident layout engine?

    If it's Trident that's bringing down IE, then you're looking at HTML code that could also bring down Windows Media Player, several versions of Outlook and Outlook Express, MSN Messenger, Steam (from Valve), and other applications which use it to render web pages. I think at least some versions of Winamp used trident as well, but I'm not sure about that.

  • IE Usage @ w3schools? (Score:5, Informative)

    by asylumx (881307) on Wednesday August 08 2007, @06:37AM (#20154517)

    as of June, IE6 was at about 37% market share and IE7 under 20%

    Yeah, but don't you think w3schools would be a bit biased? W3schools is a site full of tutorials and information for developers. Developers tend to prefer FireFox due to its robust plugin system and some of the excellent plugins for that system (Firebug, Web Tools, etc.) so I'm not surprised that FireFox has a higher rate of use on such a site. In fact, I am surprised that it's not higher!

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by kebes (861706)
      Yeah the w3schools [w3schools.com] stat of 34% firefox is higher than the global average. The Wikipedia page on browser share [wikipedia.org] summarizes statistics from a wide variety of sources (and includes links, of course). As can be seen, the values vary depending the location and types of sites used in the stats. According to some reports [xitimonitor.com], Firefox is nearing 28% usage across Europe. The global stats for generic sites seem to agree that Firefox usage is 12%-15%, versus Internet Explorer (all versions) being 75%-84%.

      Still, this is
  • If the point of this item is to point out bugs in IE it isn't alone. I crashed a large Epiphany session with a segmentation violation a couple of days ago and its relatively easy to crash Firefox if you limit the amount of memory available using ulimit (Firefox doesn't catch "early" C++ memory allocation failures and handle them gracefully). Firefox also has the infamous "window unexpectedly destroyed" bug (#263160) for ~3 years (which will crash the browser if you attempt to close the untitled window).

    I suspect all of the Mozilla based browsers will effectively die if one throws enough "heavyweight" pages at them (i.e. those which are activity heavy [because there isn't a Javascript/Active HTML/Animated GIF scheduler]) or run out of swap space (again because memory allocation failures are not handled gracefully).

    IMO, developers place too much emphasis on feature enhancements rather than making the existing browsers run reliably (bugs shouldn't linger for 3 years), with a minimal machine footprint (Netscape 4.7x required significantly less memory than Firefox) and effective priority scheduling of the "top" window (user responsiveness).

  • Also crashes Outlook... (Score:4, Informative)

    by eglass1 (521686) on Wednesday August 08 2007, @07:51AM (#20155031)
    If you include it in the body of an HTML mail message.

    • I tend to use http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php [w3counter.com] more than the w3schools stats, they're usually more accurate since w3schools has a very specific audience.

      These guys have some interesting statistics:
      http://marketshare.hitslink.com/default.aspx [hitslink.com]

      I won't speculate on the accuracy of these sites but it's interesting to compare the w3 statistics with the hitslink.com statistics. Linux for example gets twice the share on the w3 counter as on the hitslink.com site. Vista gets fewer hits on the w3 counter than on the hitslink.com site, it's currently standing at 5,4%, I thought it would be in more widespread use by now. The older Macs are completely missing from the

    • "I tend to use http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php [w3counter.com] more than the w3schools stats, they're usually more accurate since w3schools has a very specific audience."

      It may be more accurate, but still not very, considering that it says that Latvia makes up 4% of web usage. ;)
    • To be perfectly fair, Safari also crashes from time to time, but I do not know the specific causes as with this error... The thing that annoys me the most about Safari, though, is that is drinks memory like a sailor drinks beer...

      The difference is, though, that you can take my MacBook Pro away from me when you pry it from my dead cold fingers... Expensive or not.. Other than some minor quirks, I am so much more efficient during the day on my MacBook Pro than I ever way on Windows... :-)

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