When describing the distribution of browser attacks in its Internet Security Threat Report Trends for January 06-June 06, Symantec concludes that Internet Explorer's prominence is correlated to the volume of vulnerabilities that have affected the application in the first six months of 2006. In this context, out of the group evaluated by Symantec, including Microsoft IE, Apple Safari, the Mozilla family (including Firefox and the Mozilla browser), Opera, Netscape, and KDE Konqueror, Internet Explorer proved to be the prevalent target.

"During the first six months of 2006, Microsoft Internet Explorer was the most frequently targeted Web browser. It was targeted by 47% of all known attacking IP addresses. Some attacks target vulnerabilities that are present in multiple Web browsers. These vulnerabilities are typically present in numerous browsers because of shared source code, although this is not always the case. Browsers that fall within the "multiple browsers" category include Apple Safari, KDE Konqueror, the Mozilla Browser family, Netscape, Opera, Microsoft Internet Explorer and others. Attacks targeting multiple browsers were the second most common during the first half of 2006, accounting for 31% of all attacking IP addresses," revealed Symantec.

Additionally, Symantec has also comprised in its study statistics indicating the evolution of specific browser attacks. Microsoft Internet Explorer DHTML Object Race Condition Memory Corruption Attack is the runner up with 19% of attacks. But an Internet Explorer related vulnerability is also in third place, Microsoft Internet Explorer Remote URLMON.DLL Buffer Overflow Attack, with 17%. Mozilla JavaScript URL Host Spoofing Arbitrary Cookie Access Attack with 8% is just in forth place.

"The most common attack carried out against Web browsers between January 1 and June 30, 2006 was the Multiple Browser Zero Width GIF Image Memory Corruption Attack, which accounted for 31% of all detected Web browser attacks. This attack exploits the vulnerability of the same name, which was first disclosed in September 2002 and affects older Netscape, Mozilla, Galleon, and Opera Web browsers. This attack is carried out when a user loads a Web site containing a graphics interchange format (GIF) image file with a width field that is set to zero," stated Symantec.