Another security gap: this time in Internet Explorer

When making the choice of what browser emulator to use for your legacy modernization, your business might want to consider the pros and cons of different OS and browsers. As if Microsoft didn't have enough problems already with the recent security concerns involving its Windows products, now Internet Explorer seemingly has some critical security flaws.

This commonly used browser has such lax security restrictions that the Department of Homeland Security has advised users to turn to other browsers until the problems have been fixed. Unfortunately, PC users who haven't upgraded to Windows 8 may still experience some security vulnerability.

The United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team said that it "is aware of active exploitation of a use-after-free vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer." This statement also contains a link to an official Microsoft page on this risk, which describes why this danger could have major immediate repercussions for Explorer users, even those who are up to date.

"In a web-based attack scenario, an attacker could host a website that contains a webpage that is used to exploit this vulnerability," the site reads. The authors of the piece go on to report that "an attacker would have no way to force users to visit these websites."

The attacks are said to have been limited and the security effort to reduce the possible damage of these flaws ongoing through the Microsoft Active Protections Program. Still, an uninformed user might make bad judgments when attempting to integrate a browser emulator in order to make better use of their mainframe.

Inventu's terminal emulation product supports all browsers so you can choose the one that poses the least possible security risk. It also has the security solutions you can rely on for operational security.