08.26.08
Novell Supports Microsoft ActiveX, Leaves Windows Open for Hijackers
“At Microsoft I learned the truth about ActiveX and COM and I got very interested in it inmediately [sic].”
–Miguel de Icaza
Novell, whose on-line shop requires that the buyer uses Internet Explorer, is also an embracer of ActiveX, a nasty poison which Microsoft devised in order to break the Web, bring Netscape to its knees, potentially make more back doors, and make third-party information and services dependent on Microsoft Windows.
We posted some links to ActiveX menaces here (noted related to this are here). Novell’s naive support of ActiveX is costing it now. A new Novell/Microsoft bug enables people to hijack computers, contributing to an already large pool of about 320,000,000 zombie PCs.
Attackers can exploit bugs in Novell Inc.’s iPrint application to obtain corporate information or hijack computers, security experts said today.
Novell has issued a patch that plugs multiple holes in the ActiveX control that Novell ships as part of its iPrint product, but according to Copenhagen-based bug tracker Secunia APS, one of the flaws remains unfixed.
If Novell uses ActiveX, does it mean that it turns its back on Firefox? And on GNU/Linux? Either way, it does not look good.
Novell: Vista supporter, IE supporter, ActiveX supporter, .NET supporter, XAML supporter. Just lovely. █
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.
Sebastiaan Veld said,
August 28, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Think you do not have any idea what this iPrint client actually can do on a Windows workstation. If you would have looked into that, you might have had an idea why the have to use ActiveX in this specific case. This has nothing to do with neglecting FireFox on Windows. Also it’s just that most people on Windows use IE. All other stuff works with FF on Windows.
Baby In The Bath Water said,
August 28, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Sebastien: This is just typical Roy Schestowitz mud-slinging-without-fact-checking anti-Novell propaganda.
One quickly discovers over the course of reading his FUD that if he spent any time at all researching the things he “reports” on, he wouldn’t be able to sling mud.
He’s so consistently wrong and out of touch with reality, it’s astounding.
Baby In The Bath Water said,
August 28, 2008 at 4:54 pm
That said, exploits = teh suck. Hope this bug got fixed or gets fixed soon for the sake of the users/admins.