Safari, Meet Windows: Apple's cool browser comes with security holes

One of the 12 reasons Apple says "you'll love" Safari for Windows - "Now you can enjoy worry-free web browsing on any computer. Apple engineers designed Safari to be secure from day one."

Apparently, it didn't take security researchers/experts like Thor Larholm, David Maynor and Aviv Raff too long to uncover the security holes in Safari for Windows, including couple of critical remote code execution vulnerabilities by simply visiting a web site. In fact, it happened within hours of Apple CEO Steve Jobs announcing availability of the Windows version of Beta 3.

More in this article titled "Researchers find flaws in Safari for Windows" on SearchSecurity.com.

Will Windows Vista's security features protect us from Safari's vulnerabilities? I can't wait to watch a spoof of Apple's security commercial - "Apple's browser will weaken system security. Cancel or Allow?".

Nevertheless, having installed the beta on a Vista box, I am super impressed by its rendering performance - it's blazing fast!

I like it's Private Browsing feature - when turned on, it doesn't add web pages visited to the browser's history, doesn't use AutoFill, and searches are not added to the Google search box. And the minimalist interface goes with Apple's simplified and generally elegant design.

Once released, and hopefully without new security bugs being discovered within hours of its release, Safari could be a serious contender for an alternate browser instead of Firefox. I would still need Internet Explorer for accessing Outlook Web Access and other Microsoft and IE-friendly sites.