Microsoft Edge Has the Same Security Holes as Internet Explorer

Hopes were so high. After years of being the butt of every browser joke for its poor performance and woeful security, Microsoft announced that its ailing browser Internet Explorer was being replaced by Microsoft Edge with the release of Windows 10. But a recent investigation by Woody Leonhard of InfoWorld has revealed that the security holes in Internet Explorer have been carried over to Edge.

“With Microsoft Edge, we want to fundamentally improve security over existing browsers and enable users to confidently experience the web from Windows. We have designed Microsoft Edge to defend users from increasingly sophisticated and prevalent attacks,” Microsoft declared back in May.

I was an early convert to Edge, for its sheer speed alone, after obtaining my free upgrade to Windows 10 in July, but I soon started to sour on it for its rudimentary design and lack of extension support. I left both Edge and Windows 10 behind within a month, reverting back to my original copy of Windows 7. A timely decision, it seems.

Leonhard looked at the most recent patch for Edge, released on Tuesday (8^th December), including an examination of its list of Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs). The patch included updates for both Internet Explorer (MS15-124) and Microsoft Edge (MS15-125). 11 of the security holes patched in IE also had to be patched in Edge, while 4 CVEs in IE were also present in Edge. In addition, the official cumulative CVE list for Microsoft Edge has 14 entries, 13 of which have also been identified as issues for Internet Explorer.