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What Netscape%squots Open Communicator Code Means

Security expert says not to worry, and at least one developer is thrilled with access to source code.

By Brian McWilliams, PCWorld   

When Netscape announced Thursday that it will soon license the source code for the next version of Communicator, Internet developers may have been anticipating all the marvelous innovations that can come from opening up the product. But users may worry that putting source code into the hands of hackers could make already vulnerable browsers even more susceptible to security attacks.

But Stephen Cobb, an information security expert, says bringing software code into the light of day actually improves its security.

%dquotSecurity by obscurity had a case going for it when the skills required to abuse code were of very limited availability,%dquot Cobb says. %dquotBut [today] people are beating the heck out of browsers for fun, and if the code is open, it is more likely that security problems in the code will be brought to light and fixed.%dquot

Cobb is director of education and research for Miora Systems Consulting, a Florida information security firm. He says that for every malicious hacker scouring Netscape%squots code for security holes, there will be several good guys in the developer community trying to do the same thing. All this combined scrutiny could make Netscape%squots Navigator browser even more secure than Microsoft%squots proprietary Internet Explorer.

%dquotThe people who want to break IE have more resources than Microsoft is putting into it now,%dquot says Cobb, adding, %dquotProbably more people would rally around to fix a free browser than Microsoft has on staff.%dquot

Microsoft says it has no plans to follow Netscape%squots lead in opening source code. It argues that IE is already extensible, and that developers prefer to license browser components rather than deal with raw code.

But at least one Microsoft partner was elated to hear of Netscape%squots plans. Bigfoot Partners of New York makes NeoPlanet, a customized version of Internet Explorer with a front-end that emphasizes content channels and keeps users from having to type URLs.

Bigfoot president Jim Hoffman applauded Netscape%squots announcement. %dquotWe%squotve always wanted to support Netscape, but the hooks weren%squott there. We were waiting for the Gemini code, which was in a sense Netscape%squots open architecture. [Yesterday%squots announcement] is far, far more exciting.%dquot

Hoffman says access to the source code will enable his company to create Web applications in which the browser is integrated, rather than a %dquotplug-out,%dquot as he calls it. And he has already contacted Netscape to say Bigfoot plans to develop a Navigator-based version of NeoPlanet.