Leopard, Safari Flaw Found

A researcher has found a flaw that affects the Leopard Mac Browser as well as Safari for PC.

Software developer Brian Mastenbrook has revealed a serious flaw in Safari, the default Web browser included with Mac OS X 10.5, a.k.a. Leopard, which also affects Safari for PC. According to Vnunet, the problem can theoretically let hackers steal information,

When the browser interacts with RSS feeds, it makes the user’s personal information vulnerable, Mastenbrook claims.

In his blog he wrote:

"Safari … is vulnerable to an attack that allows a malicious web site to read files on a user’s hard drive without user intervention."

"This can be used to gain access to sensitive information stored on the user’s computer, such as emails, passwords, or cookies that could be used to gain access to the user’s accounts on some web sites."

For obvious reasons, he’s given no details on the flaw, but Mastenbrook has published a workaround for Mac OS X users. For those on the PC, his suggestion is to use a different browser until a solution is in place.