Microsoft Warns of Threat from Apple's Web Browser

According to Microsoft, the Apple Safari web browser has a weakness which could lead to the PC being infected or compromised. If an attacker can successfully lure a user into visiting a malicious web site, either through a link in a phishing email, or a link from a web site, that malicious web site can initiate a download of malware to the PC without any warning to, or consent from, the user. The good news for most Windows users is that Apple's web browser is not installed by default on the Windows operating system. However, after a seemingly unethical push of the software earlier this year using their update application, Safari is at least present on many more systems now than it was at the beginning of the year. Fortunately, this attack requires not just that Safari be installed, but that Safari be the default browser, or at least the browser used at the time of the attack, in order for the unannounced download of malware to work.