14 DAY TRIAL // In the aftermath of Safari's availability for the Windows platform the hunt for vulnerabilities ensued. Apple has taken its browser out of the safe heaven of Mac OS X and set it free in the Windows jungle. But here Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2.0 are just rivals, and equal to Safari 3 beta as items of prey. Internet browsers have long been one of the preferred attack vectors on Windows.
Both Internet Explorer and Firefox have seen their fair shares of exploits, one more than the other. Now it is Safari's turn. And the outcome does not look anywhere near promising with the first vulnerabilities following the browser's availability on Windows after just a few hours. Because while being a valid alternative to IE7 and Firefox on Windows Vista and Windows XP, Safari is also another door for attacks. Security company Symantec even warned of the increase in attacks.
"Web browers have been a prime vector of infection over the last year through Internet Explorer vulnerabilities or social engineering links to malicious executables. Many of these infections are delivered through exploit toolkits such as Mpack and WebAttacker. With Safari now being available on Windows, we suspect new vulnerabilities and exploits geared towards Safari will follow if Safari achieves a sizable marketshare," revealed Eric Chien, Symantec Security Response Engineer.
It is obvious that Apple needs Safari on Windows in connection with the iPhone. Apple CEO Steve Jobs revealed that it won't be opened to developers and to third party applications. As an alternative the iPhone applications will be authored in JavaScript and executed within Safari as the browser is in sync with the mobile phone. This is the main reason why Apple has made Safari available on Windows, and not because from its 4.82% share on the browser market it poses any threat to the dominance of IE with 78.67% or to Firefox with 14.54%.