Microsoft, Netscape beset by browser bugs

New flaws have been discovered in Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape's Navigator browsers, posing potentially serious privacy and security problems.

It's Microsoft's fourth bug in recent weeks, and Netscape's second.

Microsoft's latest problem is a security hole that permits a "buffer overrun" attack. Considered the most common form of computer security bug, a buffer overrun occurs when an address field is vulnerable to flooding by an extremely long string of characters, which can crash the computer. Excess characters can wind up in memory, where they can be executed on restarting. The company says it is working on a patch.

Communicator's most recent security issue concerns the browser's implementation of JavaScript. The glitch could let a Web site operator snoop on potentially sensitive information, like a bank personal identification number, contained in another page open in a second window.

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