Stop Browser privacy leak

Does your Browser leak your PC privacy?

Your browser tells a lot about you. Don't be surprised (it doesn't tell your name, home address, social security number etc). It however tells visiting websites where you come from, your IP address, Screen resolution of your monitor, what keywords you have entered in search engines to search for a particular website and much more. Much of it is sent through referer. When visiting a webpage, the referer or referring page is the URL of the previous webpage from which a link was followed. More generally, a referer is the URL of a previous item which led to this request. The referer for an image, for example, is generally the HTML page on which it is to be displayed. The referer is part of the HTTP request sent by the browser program to the web server.

But here's a good news. A referer can be spoofed. It means you can selectively choose to send false information to any visiting website. You can even block referer information. Blocking referer would result in no privacy leak via your browser. The visiting website would never know what links you have followed to get on to that page.

Want to spoof referer?
Visit http://refspoof.mozdev.org/ and download referer spoof. Selectively choose what you want to send what not.

Want to check privacy leak through referer?
Try PcFlank's browser test. It tests if your browser reveals any personal information. You can access browser privacy test here: http://www.pcflank.com/browser_test1.htm.
Check what information is sent through your browser by HTTP_REFERER test . It displays the referer (as well as all other HTTP headers) sent by your browser.

Want to strengthen your PC privacy a little bit?
There are many good quality PC privacy software available on the internet. Good news is that many of them are absolutely free to use. Spysites listed at http://pcsecurityworld.com/freewares.htm is a good example. It is however not a full-fledged PC privacy protection software. Besides, all spyware and adware removers, cookie filter software contribute in their own way to strengthen your PC privacy.

Need more sophisticated PC Privacy protection?
You can download VIP Privacy from VIPDefense.com. VIP Privacy is a perfect tool for your private info protection. Unlike many other applications, VIP Privacy protects your from potential threat by giving the malefactors nothing to steal! VIP Privacy lets you search and safely clean up all information stored inside your system and installed applications. It does not in any way delete any private files nor it changes the contents of user's documents.

for better Browser privacy protection and ultimate browsing experience along with a faster and secure browsing, use: Mozilla Firefox (Download from the sidebar).

Couple your firefox with Preferences toolbar . It is one of the best firefox extensions that I have found. With preferences bar, only one click is all needed to disable sending referer to websites.

Mozilla duped by hacker's 'humorous' presentation

Firefox's Javascript Vulnerability Exploit was a joke:

One of the hackers who demonstrated exploit code for a vulnerability in the way the Firefox browser handles Javascript at a hacker conference in San Diego admitted Tuesday that the presentation was meant to be a joke, the chief of security for Mozilla has said.

Mozilla security researchers spent most of Sunday and Monday scrambling to determine if exploit code revealed during a presentation by hackers Mischa Spiegelmock and Andrew Wbeelsoi at Toorcon over the weekend could allow someone to execute malicious code through a memory corruption attack on Firefox.

However, Window Snyder, who leads Mozilla's security team, said Spiegelmock admitted to the company that the presentation was meant to be humorous, and he and Wbeelsoi had not actually achieved remote execution with the exploit code demonstrated at the show.

"At best, in some cases it will crash only the client," Snyder said Tuesday. "That's all we've been able to verify at this point."

Spiegelmock, who works for Six Apart Ltd., confirmed as much in his LiveJournal blog, in which he includes a link to a statement he made that is posted on Snyder's Mozilla blog. (http://developer.mozilla.org/devnews/index.php/
2006/10/02/update-possible-vulnerability-reported-at-toorcon)

"The main purpose of our talk was to be humorous," according to the statement. "As part of our talk we mentioned that there was a previously known Firefox vulnerability that could result in a stack overflow ending up in remote code execution. However, the code we presented did not in fact do this, and I personally have not gotten it to result in code execution, nor do I know of anyone who has."

During the presentation, the hackers also said they knew of 30 other vulnerabilities in Firefox but this, too, was a joke, Snyder said Tuesday.

To hear Six Apart spokeswoman Jane Anderson tell it, the Toorcon presentation was a joke invented by two kids barely out of their teens who didn't understand the ramifications of their actions.

"It was all a parody," she said. Anderson added that Spiegelmock was not representing Six Apart at the show, and the company spent most of Sunday on the phone with Mozilla putting out fires and cooperating with the company to get to the bottom of the matter.

To make matters more embarrassing for Six Apart, the company's earliest investor, Joi Ito, is on Mozilla's board of directors.

Anderson added that Spiegelmock will not be terminated for his actions. "We all make mistakes," she said.

Snyder and the Mozilla team also are being good sports about the ordeal.

"Of course, we always prefer that security researchers report vulnerabilities to us so we can create a patch before customers are put at risk," she said. "But at this point he's been very cooperative and we're pleased he's chosen to work with us."

Still, Snyder said, "I know people who were working really hard here on Sunday probably have other things they'd rather be doing."

Article by by Elizabeth Montalbano InfoWorld