JavaScript and Netscape 4.5

[jukka-bt () NARNIA TKY HUT FI (Jukka Suomela)]

On Fri, Oct 23, 1998 at 08:23:18PM -0400, Steven M. Bellovin wrote:

> I also have indications that under BSD/OS 4.0, Communicator 4.5 does
> not disable Javascript, no matter what the setting. Can anyone
> confirm that on other platforms? (Not surprisingly, I immediately
> deleted 4.5...)

While I was testing Netscape 4.5PR1 on both Linux and Windows 95, I
found an odd behaviour.

If you disable the JavaScript and restart the browser, the "Enable
JavaScript" check-box is disabled. However, JavaScript still works.

The workaround is to enable JavaScript and then disable it again,
every time after starting the browser.

I sent feedback about this bug to Netscape. 4.5PR2 was still broken on
both platforms. It seems that 4.5 works correctly on the Windows
platform but Linux-glibc2 version is still broken.

IMO this is a security problem: if you disable the JavaScript you
usually think that you aren't vulnerable to any JavaScript related
bugs.