Microsoft's Warning: Beware of Safari

Two weeks ago the unveiling of a Safari browser vulnerability, dubbed a carpet bomb, was greeted with a somewhat mild reaction by the folks at Apple. Although its legitimacy wasn't questioned, the flaw didn't really stir up any urgency from the browser's security team. It turns out that the issue may be a bit more serious than many insiders originally thought.

Microsoft has issued a security advisory warning Safari for Windows users that they may be at risk for remote code execution on their PCs. A blended attack involving a combination of the aforementioned carpet bomb and the method in which the Windows desktop handles executable files could allow a hacker to compromise an unsuspecting victim's system. It isn't clear yet if Apple, Microsoft, or both will issue resolutions for these vulnerabilities but in the meantime Safari users have a couple of options available to protect themselves. The first rather obvious solution would be to switch to an alternate browser such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Opera until a fix is released. However, if you want to keep using Safari, change the browser's default download location to anything other than the default Desktop setting.