Safari

Safari 10.1.1 for Mac fixes yet another instance of address bar spoofing

Christian Zibreg ∙ May 15, 2017

Safari 10.1.1, pushed out as part of today's minor macOS Sierra 10.12.5 software update, fixes yet another instance of address bar spoofing. This is good news because the browser can now protect you from phishing attacks that would typically attempt to fool you into believing you were visiting a genuine website rather than a maliciously crafted webpage.

According to the company's security document, the software fixes a flaw where visiting a malicious website may lead to address bar spoofing. “An inconsistent user interface issue was addressed with improved state management,” states Apple.

Even folks who are extremely mindful of phishing are susceptible to address bar spoofing.

The sophistication of today's phishing attacks came to light when Chinese security researcher Xudong Zheng demonstrated how easily users could be fooled into visiting a fake website that seemingly shows the correct URL in the address bar.

To protect yourself from such attacks in the future, manually type in the URL of the website you want to visit or choose your favorite website from Safari's Bookmarks menu. Of course, you should avoid clicking any suspicious links in an email message, even if they appear to originate from a contact you personally know.

The patched vulnerability was discovered in Safari for macOS, not for iOS.

Apple credits Zhiyang Zeng and Yuyang Zhou of Tencent Security Platform Department with the discovery of the vulnerability CVE-2017-2500 and Zhiyang Zeng of Tencent Security Platform Department with the discovery of the vulnerability CVE-2017-2511.

Moreover, Safari 10.1.1 fixed an issue in Safari's history menu that could lead to an application denial of service after visiting a maliciously crafted webpage. The issue was addressed through improved memory handling.

Lastly, Safari 10.1.1 also includes patches for as many as seven vulnerabilities that were discovered in the WebKit rendering engine, five of which dealing with universal cross site scripting, while fixing an issue with WebKit's Web Inspector where an app could execute unsigned code.

Safari 10.1.1 is available for OS X Yosemite 10.10.5, OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 and macOS Sierra 10.12.5. Apple also released a minor update to iTunes for Mac and Windows today.

iTunes 12.6.1 contains unspecified app and performance improvements and a fix for a WebKit exploit on Windows 7 and later which could result in arbitrary code execution after processing maliciously crafted web content.

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This tweak forces Safari to load web pages in Reader or full screen mode

Anthony Bouchard ∙ May 6, 2017

While browsing the web in Safari, two bars typically appear in the app: the navigation bar (top) and the toolbar (bottom). As you scroll through a page, on the other hand, the toolbar disappears and the navigation bar shrinks to conserve vertical space.

There are other modes you can use in Safari to complement the web browsing experience, such as full screen mode in landscape orientation and Reader mode in either orientation, but if you’ve ever wished Safari would just use either mode automatically for every page you visit, then you’re going to love using a new free jailbreak tweak called SafaReaderFullScroll by CydiaGeek.

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How to clear your web browsing cache in Chrome, Safari, and Firefox on Mac

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated December 19, 2022
Chrome settings on Mac

Over time, web browsers accumulate website data from everyday browsing. Known as cache, this data collection helps browsers load web pages more quickly, so these files don't have to be re-downloaded when you revisit the same websites in the future.

Unfortunately, cache is also the main suspect when diagnosing issues loading websites, and it can also eat up valuable storage space on your Mac. That's why in this tutorial, we'll show you how to delete cache and cookies in three of the most popular web browsers: Apple Safari, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox.

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Don’t want internet providers to sell your browsing data? Use a VPN

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated March 26, 2018

While the FCC fought hard to keep your internet browsing data safe from third parties, it appears the United States government has other interests in mind. That said, your internet service provider (ISP) may soon begin selling your personal internet browsing data to third parties, putting your privacy at risk of exploitation.

On the other hand, there's still a way you can protect yourself and your data. Using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) will keep your internet browsing data hidden from your ISP, which in turn keeps it from being sold to third parties.

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How to use Google SafeSearch to filter out explicit web search results

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated January 13, 2023
Google SafeSearch enabled on iPhone

Whether you’re a parent trying to filter explicit content from the limitless Google searches your child could be searching on the web, or you’re simply trying to figure out why it seems like certain images or web results are being filtered from your Google search queries, chances are Google SafeSearch is the answer.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how you can toggle Google SafeSearch on or off, depending on whether you need to start filtering explicit search results from your queries or stop doing so when the feature is already enabled.

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iCloud was storing deleted browsing histories, but Apple fixed the issue

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 9, 2017

A Russian forensics firm named Elcomsoft has discovered that Apple was storing users' Safari browsing histories in iCloud going back more than a year, possibly much longer. This was happening even after users had asked for any deleted records to be wiped from their iCloud-connected devices. Soon after Elcomsoft announced a way to extract deleted browsing histories from iCloud, Apple applied a server-side fix to stop the retrievals and apparently purged all records older than two weeks.

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Safari Tools lets you customize the look and feel of Safari on iOS

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 8, 2017

Safari is the best way to browse the web on your iPhone or iPad, but it still looks mostly the same as it did in iOS 7, and some people want change. Fortunately, having a way to customize the things that you don’t like is just one of the benefits of having a jailbreak.

A new free jailbreak tweak called Safari Tools by Justin Petkovic brings to the table a number of settings that you can apply to Safari to change its appearance and behavior under certain conditions.

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How and where to share faster with AirDrop

Steffen Reich ∙ Updated January 25, 2018

In the absence of reliable figures from Apple, it is not much more than conjecture to say that AirDrop is likely a feature often neglected by the average iOS user. The gut feeling persists though, simply based on day to day observations, and it is a tenable position to take until proven wrong by Cupertino or another reputable source. The file transfer protocol is indeed handy for the transfer of heavier media files (e.g. videos, photo albums), but often only becomes relevant to us when we for example have upgraded to a new device.

Next to sheer transmission speed however, there are other notable areas where AirDrop has the clear edge when it comes to sharing all kinds of material from your iPhone. The AirDrop icon has now fully permeated the sharing tab in iOS 10’s user interface and that is for a good reason: it is without fail going to be more nimble than iMessage, Mail or other contenders, often actually skipping steps that would throttle the process elsewhere. Such being the case, here are some unique scenarios where AirDrop excels on your iPhone and why you should try to embrace the feature more regularly.

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How to view and delete your Google search history

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated January 11, 2023
Delete your Google activity

Whenever you make a Google search while being logged in to any service from the company, your search is saved to your Google account’s activity. This is designed to help improve your search experience by increasing the amount of relevant results you'll see.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to view and delete your Google search query history, a step you can take to increase your privacy by preventing others from seeing what you’ve searched for.

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