ActiveX Control Vulnerability

My research takes me to a wide variety of web sites. I am running Win XP sp2,
IE 7, Kaspersky Internet Suite, Spywareblaster and Linkscanner. To protect
against the threats inherent in activex controls I disabled the security
setting in IE 7 for â??runactivex controls and plug-insâ??.
While most web pages still load 'adequately', my problem is with video
files. Many (if not most) do not run unless I re-enable the setting. Setting
a register bit (a suggestion by some experts) is too complex. Will switching
to Mozilla (no activex problem) solve my problem? Is there a way to keep IE 7
and avoid the security issues and inconveniences of the activex controls?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Bryan

jwgoerlich
Wed Dec 26 10:30:00 CST 2007

Hello Bryan,

Are the websites that require ActiveX for videos trusted? If so, you
can add them to the Trusted sites (Tools > Internet Options > Security
Tab, highlight Trusted sites, click [Sites].) Set the Trusted Sites to
enable ActiveX for your videos. Disable ActiveX on the Internet. This
is a whitelist approach that I find works very well, particularly if
combined with web surfing as a normal user (e.g., not as
Administrator).

J Wolfgang Goerlich

On Dec 26, 10:22 am, bryan <br...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> My research takes me to a wide variety of web sites. I am running Win XP sp2,
> IE 7, Kaspersky Internet Suite, Spywareblaster and Linkscanner. To protect
> against the threats inherent in activex controls I disabled the security
> setting in IE 7 for 'runactivex controls and plug-ins'.
> While most web pages still load 'adequately', my problem is with video
> files. Many (if not most) do not run unless I re-enable the setting. Setting
> a register bit (a suggestion by some experts) is too complex. Will switching
> to Mozilla (no activex problem) solve my problem? Is there a way to keep IE 7
> and avoid the security issues and inconveniences of the activex controls?
>
> Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Bryan

bryan
Wed Dec 26 11:48:01 CST 2007

Hi J Wolfgang,
Thanks for your reply. I have been using my trusted sites as you have
suggested. The problem is that when I browse movie trailers via Windows Media
Player etc, the videos take me to many different sites and it gets cumbersome
adding each site to the trusted list. Also, unless I enable ''run activex
controls and plug-ins", none of the videos on the Yahoo web site run at all.

"jwgoerlich@gmail.com" wrote:

> Hello Bryan,
>
> Are the websites that require ActiveX for videos trusted? If so, you
> can add them to the Trusted sites (Tools > Internet Options > Security
> Tab, highlight Trusted sites, click [Sites].) Set the Trusted Sites to
> enable ActiveX for your videos. Disable ActiveX on the Internet. This
> is a whitelist approach that I find works very well, particularly if
> combined with web surfing as a normal user (e.g., not as
> Administrator).
>
> J Wolfgang Goerlich
>
> On Dec 26, 10:22 am, bryan <br...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> > My research takes me to a wide variety of web sites. I am running Win XP sp2,
> > IE 7, Kaspersky Internet Suite, Spywareblaster and Linkscanner. To protect
> > against the threats inherent in activex controls I disabled the security
> > setting in IE 7 for 'runactivex controls and plug-ins'.
> > While most web pages still load 'adequately', my problem is with video
> > files. Many (if not most) do not run unless I re-enable the setting. Setting
> > a register bit (a suggestion by some experts) is too complex. Will switching
> > to Mozilla (no activex problem) solve my problem? Is there a way to keep IE 7
> > and avoid the security issues and inconveniences of the activex controls?
> >
> > Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Bryan
>
>

bryan
Wed Dec 26 21:47:01 CST 2007

As it turned out, the videos on the Yahoo web site all seem to use the same
url so I added it to my trusted sites. Most important of all, I can do my
research work by browsing sites with 'run activex controls and plug-ins'
disabled and the web pages load reasonably well. I will continue to operate
this way. Thanks again for your assistance.

Regards,

Bryan

"bryan" wrote:

> Hi J Wolfgang,
> Thanks for your reply. I have been using my trusted sites as you have
> suggested. The problem is that when I browse movie trailers via Windows Media
> Player etc, the videos take me to many different sites and it gets cumbersome
> adding each site to the trusted list. Also, unless I enable ''run activex
> controls and plug-ins", none of the videos on the Yahoo web site run at all.
>
> "jwgoerlich@gmail.com" wrote:
>
> > Hello Bryan,
> >
> > Are the websites that require ActiveX for videos trusted? If so, you
> > can add them to the Trusted sites (Tools > Internet Options > Security
> > Tab, highlight Trusted sites, click [Sites].) Set the Trusted Sites to
> > enable ActiveX for your videos. Disable ActiveX on the Internet. This
> > is a whitelist approach that I find works very well, particularly if
> > combined with web surfing as a normal user (e.g., not as
> > Administrator).
> >
> > J Wolfgang Goerlich
> >
> > On Dec 26, 10:22 am, bryan <br...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
> > > My research takes me to a wide variety of web sites. I am running Win XP sp2,
> > > IE 7, Kaspersky Internet Suite, Spywareblaster and Linkscanner. To protect
> > > against the threats inherent in activex controls I disabled the security
> > > setting in IE 7 for 'runactivex controls and plug-ins'.
> > > While most web pages still load 'adequately', my problem is with video
> > > files. Many (if not most) do not run unless I re-enable the setting. Setting
> > > a register bit (a suggestion by some experts) is too complex. Will switching
> > > to Mozilla (no activex problem) solve my problem? Is there a way to keep IE 7
> > > and avoid the security issues and inconveniences of the activex controls?
> > >
> > > Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > >
> > > Bryan
> >
> >

Anteaus
Mon Dec 31 14:36:01 CST 2007

I would get Firefox, Seamonkey, or Opera. With these the Activex problem is
largely academic. With the exception that WMP itself may have exploits, of
course.