Microsoft Internet Explorer has ended, but its ghosts will remain in time

Despite being inactive, the browser can still serve as a gateway to computer attacks, especially in organizations where updates are not constant.

After years of futility and regression in recent months, the internet browser It finally came to an end, marking a turning point for Microsoft and one of its most popular products. Originally released in 1995, Internet Explorer has been preinstalled on Windows computers for nearly two decades, and like Windows XP, it has become Foundation stone So much so that when it came time for users to upgrade and move to newer browsers, they often didn’t.

Despite the end imposed by the North American giant last week pushing users beyond the limits Historical browserSecurity researchers warn that the vulnerabilities are not yet gone, the site notes wired.

In the coming months, Microsoft will disable the IE app on Windows 10 devices, directing users to their browser edge The Next Generation, first released in 2015. However, the Internet Explorer icon will remain on users’ computers, and Edge will now include a service called “IE . modeTo maintain access to old websites designed for Internet Explorer.

Seven years after Edge debuted, an analysis has emerged computer industry It indicates that Internet Explorer, as antiquated as it may seem to some, can still hold more than 5% of the total market share of the global browser – and in the USA, that share may be closer to two%.

For a product that has been on the market for as long as IE, backwards compatibility is Something hard to find. “We cannot forget that some parts of the web are still dependent on specific behaviors and characteristics of Internet Explorer,” he explained. Shawn LinderseyPresident of Microsoft Edge Enterprise.

On the other hand, the official added that there is a real need Restart with Edge instead of reactivating Internet Explorer. “The Internet has evolved and so have browsers. The incremental improvements in Internet Explorer have not been able to match the general improvements for the web in general, so We have started repeatedly”.

Microsoft has made it clear that it will continue to support Internet Explorer’s core browser engine, known as “MSHTML”, and is eyeing versions of Windows that are still “used in critical environments”. But Maddie Stone, a researcher who is part of Google’s vulnerabilities team, notes that hackers are still exploit vulnerabilities from Internet Explorer in real world attacks. “Internet Explorer remains a mature attack surface for initial access on Windows machines, even if the user is not using Internet Explorer as their Internet browser.”

In his review, Stone specifically noted that while the number of new Internet Explorer vulnerabilities has remained fairly constant, over the years attackers have increasingly turned to target the MSHTML browser engine with malicious files such as Office documents. This may mean that IE application sanitization It won’t change right away Attack tendencies that are already in motion.

Needless to say, for a browser that’s supposed to be dead, Explorer still takes a lot alive.