Microsoft has released an out-of-band update to fix a security issue in both Internet Explorer 6 and 7.

Internet Explorer 8 is safe this time, while the vulnerability could allow for remote code execution when a user visits a website with the malicious inserted in it. Full details on the issue can be seen in Microsoft Security Advisory (981374).

The update is included with Security Bulletin MS10-018 and the flaw is rated as critical, and was originally expected during the 13th April update cycle.

“The Internet Explorer team accelerated testing of this update due to the growing attacks against the publicly disclosed vulnerability” wrote Microsoft Security Response Center Group Manager Jerry Bryant.

The update is available from Microsoft Update, or will be pushed out to Windows users who have automatic updates turned on.

The Chrome development team have today announced a new partnership with Adobe which bundles Adobe’s Flash with Google Chrome browser.

The latest development builds include Adobe Flash Player 10.1.51.95 (10.1 beta 3), and allows Chrome users to receive updated Flash updates automatically without the need of user intervention.

“The traditional browser plug-in model has enabled tremendous innovation on the web, but it also presents challenges for both plug-ins and browsers. The browser plug-in interface is loosely specified, limited in capability and varies across browsers and operating systems. This can lead to incompatibilities, reduction in performance and some security headaches” explains Google.

This move will ensure participating plug-ins are always up to date, increasing browsers security, while also integrating plug-ins tighter within the browser ensuring they become more stable.

Mozilla is also in on the plan, with Google using Mozilla’s next generation browser plug-in API. Other plug-ins such as Adobe’s PDF reader are expected to come further down the track.

Adobe’s Flash Player can be found from today with today’s dev channel update for Chrome; version 5.0.360.4 for Windows and Mac and 5.0.360.5 for Linux.

Google has pushed out a small update to Google Chrome, taking it to version 4.1.249.1045 on Windows.

The update fixes a crash bug, and adds a new option to disable the new translate feature. This release also closes a security hole which was rated as low and would crash the browser upon receiving a bad FTP response.

Information on these two crash bugs can be read in issues 38857 and 38845.

The update will be pushed out to Windows Chrome users automatically, or alternatively, you can download the browser from the Google Chrome website.

Welcome to the newly improved Browser Watch, fetching a brand new custom created WordPress theme.

We hope the updated design will make it easier for our users to read the news without the pages being too cluttered.

The design itself relies heavily on CSS3 features, such as border-radius, box-shadow, text-shadow the CSS gradients, so Internet Explorer users, and to a degree Opera users (with it’s lack of CSS gradient support) will miss out on the full effect, though the site is fully functional in both browsers.

It’s still a work in progress, with a few features missing (such as the search box), but it’s mostly all there. Let us know if you spot any bugs, have any suggestions or comments.

IntoMobile have put Opera Mini for iPhone up for a speed test against the iPhones native Safari browser.

The results are not surprising, with Opera Mini for iPhone using Opera’s Turbo technology, which compresses data by as much as 90% before sending the data to the iPhone.

In the test, the power of Opera Turbo is revealed, with Opera Mini for iPhone killing the Safari browser. You can watch the results yourself in the video below.

No word yet on when or whether Apple will approve the Opera Mini browser for the iPhone.

After day 1 of Pwn2Own, web browsers appear to have taken a big hit, but Google’s Chrome appears to have come out unscathed.

It didn’t take long, with Safari 4 on Mac OS X Snow Leopard the first victim thanks to the work of Charlie Miller. Millers set up a remote exploit at a web site through which a conference organisers MacBook was taken control after surfing to it.

Internet Explorer 8 on Windows 7 was next, with a similar exploit allowing Peter Vreugdenhil to take control of an organisers laptop once they browsed to a website with the infected code.

Firefox 3 was also exploited on Windows 7 using a memory corruption vulnerability, with another exploit that allows a remote attacker access to a users PC.

Both Opera and Google Chrome were not hacked, with Charlie Miller stating “there are bugs in Chrome but they’re very hard to exploit. I have a Chrome vulnerability right now but I don’t know how to exploit it. It’s really hard. They’ve got that sandbox model that’s hard to get out of. With Chrome, it’s a combination of things — you can’t execute on the heap, the OS protections in Windows and the Sandbox.”

All systems were patched and updated to their latest versions, with the exploits used to remain a secret until browser makers can update their browsers.

Google has pushed out Chrome 4.1.249.1042 to Windows users.

Not much was changed in this release, with only one change solving an issue with some extensions not installing from the Google Chrome extensions gallery. This fixes issue 38220.

The update will be pushed out to all Chrome users, while new users can download the browser from the Google Chrome website.

Opera has bitten the bullet, and has submitted a version of Opera Mini suitable for the iPhone.

To celebrate the occasion, Opera has launched a timer to count how long it takes Apple to make a decision on the mobile browser.

It is still unknown however if Apple will accept the browser, despite Opera stating that the browser complies 100% with Apple’s App store policies. Apple has been known in the past to reject application that provide the same functionality as already found on the iPhone. Apple has however recently approved several web browser to the App store.

Opera announced the availability of Opera Mini for iPhone at the 2010 Mobile World Congress, which includes the use of  unlimited tabs, and the ability to search through web pages. The browser is missing pinch-to-zoom at this stage, but it is expected to be added in a future release if the browser is approved.

Time is now ticking Apple. Your move!

Not long after the release of Opera 10.50, Opera have released Opera 10.51 for Windows.

The release not only addresses several security and bug fixes, it is also up to 20% faster in JavaScript benchmarks than 10.50 was.

Opera 10.51 is now the fastest browser when it comes to running the Pacekeeper benchmarking tool.

A full list of changes for this release can be found in the changelog.

The update can be downloaded from the Opera website, while existing Opera 10.50 users will be automatically upgraded thanks to the browsers new auto-update technology.

Mozilla has announced that they are stopping development for Firefox on Windows Mobile devices.

The announcement is no surprise, with the announcement of Windows Phone 7 series expected to limit the device to just Internet Explorer on it’s mobile devices, much like Apple has done with it’s iPhone.

“We have been building a version of Firefox for Windows Mobile for quite a while, with the expectation that Microsoft would be doubling down in the mobile market and hoping that they would put out a great new mobile operating system” wrote Mozilla Mobile Team Technical Lead, Stuart Parmenter.

“While we think Windows Phone 7 looks interesting and has the potential to do well in the market, Microsoft has unfortunately decided to close off development to native applications.  Because of this, we won’t be able to provide Firefox for Windows Phone 7 at this time” continued Parmenter.

All hope isn’t totally lost, with Parmeter adding “while I hope that we do see Microsoft provide us with a way to build Firefox for Windows Phone 7, we will continue to focus on the things that we can control: building a great consumer product on both Android and Maemo.”