UPDATED 06:51 EDT / AUGUST 07 2014

Internet Explorer cracks down on outdated ActiveX controls

cafe-151346_640Internet Explorer is getting with the times. As of next Tuesday, Microsoft Corp.’s venerable browser will begin automatically blocking out-of-date ActiveX controls as well as out-of-date versions of the Java plugin. Although the official feature is described as an ActiveX block, most of the prohibited plugins run Java. Older versions of Flash and Silverlight will still work with IE, although Redmond’s engineers are planning to add more ActiveX controls to its blacklist at a future date.

The changes bring IE more in line with rival browsers like Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, which have both blocked unsafe and out-of-date plugins for some time. And just like its rivals, Microsoft plans to continually update its block list as vulnerabilities are unearthed and newer versions of the plugins are released.

Interestingly, Microsoft is being more ruthless than either of its rivals about blocking Java. Every version dating back to Java SE 1.4 has been blocked, with only the most recent patch levels being allowed to run. That’s far stricter than Firefox, for example, which allows “click to run” behavior for all Java versions, including the latest release.

Microsoft is clearly subscribing to a “better safe than sorry” philosophy, and that’s not such a bad move when one considers that, according to Cisco, some 91 percent of web exploits exist thanks to vulnerabilities in Java.

The blocking feature also comes with a handy “update” button that lets users upgrade their plugins to the latest version. Meanwhile, more advanced users can proceed to the Group Policy settings in IE for advanced options like extra logging, disabling user blocking overrides, whitelisting certain domains and disabling the feature altogether.

A few exceptions have been thrown into the mix. The feature won’t run in the Trusted Sites Zone or the Local Intranet Zone because sites listed there are presumably safe.

ActiveX blocking will be integrated with IE8 and later versions only on browsers running on Windows 7 or later. Vista and Windows XP users are out of luck.

Image credit: Openclips via Pixabay.com


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