Two major browser vendors have started to warn about forms which are transmitted over insecure connections and intended to transmit sensitive data. If a web page that is transmitted via unprotected HTTP contains a form with a password field, then the latest Firefox version 51 will show a lock with a red stroke and Chrome 56 will display “Not secure” in front of the URL. This tackles a situation that is relatively common which happens because of misunderstanding of HTTPS. If a form is transmitted via HTTP and the data from the form is sent through HTTPS, then usually the data is transmitted securely. However, an attacker can manipulate the [unsecured] form and force the data to be sent to a location he or she controls. Such attacks are known as SSL Stripping. IOW, for a Web form to be truly secure, both the transmission of the form to your browser and the transmission of the response back to the server must be done via HTTPS.

Chrome 56 doesn't run on XP, but Firefox 51 does. The article doesn't specifically say if Firefox ESR 45 includes the new warning, although security fixes are normally included in the ESR updates. New security warnings like this are one reason to stay up-to-date with your browser if/when feasible. Unfortunately we're not dealing with a simple case of compiling without enabling XP support.

List of Web Browsers Working with XP 2017 Apr 4, 2016 Windows XP 32bit SP2Chromiumbased BrowsersAdvanced Chrome 5415 53200Windows XP 32bit SP3Geckoba Portable. As XP is gone and Vista mere. Wavelab 5 Windows 7 Fix Failed. So here’s the lowdown for Windows XP and Vista users for what browsers. Which web browser is best for Windows 10?

All code specifically supporting XP (and Vista) is being very deliberately removed from FF, so even if the various XP API extension projects mature, there's still no guarantee that FF will (properly) work on XP without forking the code and adding some of this stuff back in. So we are facing a Chrome -like situation.

By the way, speaking of chrome, Google plans to limit Gmail functionalities on older version of Chrome (53 and older) which will see a warning message saying that some functionalities may not work. Of course, the HTML version will still work fine, and Google plans to automatically redirect all the XP users on chrome 49 trying to login in Gmail to the HTML version. So we are facing a Chrome -like situation. Chrome-like in more ways than one, because one of the big reasons they decided to drop XP at this point was that they borrowed Chrome's sandboxing code and faced a problem after Chrome dropped XP support for it.

You only learn that from their dev discussions, of course, in their public statements about dropping XP it's just your usual boilerplate about 'no longer supported by Microsoft' and hence 'security', and patting themselves on the back about what bros they've been to have supported it this long. In mid-2017, a final support end date will be announced based on the number of users still on Windows XP and Vista. Something that might work in our favor: ESR 52 will continue to support all NPAPI plugins, but Mozilla has cleverly decided to end support for all NPAPI plugins except Flash Player in non-ESR 52 (see ).

Therefore, devotees of other NPAPI plugins running newer platforms may gravitate toward ESR 52, which would hopefully make Mozilla less inclined to end support for it (unless they really do have a deathwish). Incidentally, Pale Moon long ago stated that they would continue to support NPAPI plugins (see ); but how long would NPAPI continue to exist if Firefox no longer supports it? Something that will work against us: Large numbers of XP and Vista diehards are also inveterate Chrome 49ers.

If they learn that Mozilla is also planning to end support, they will be even less inclined to switch browsers. Hmmmm as for Flash, we should all want Flash developers to migrate their applets elsewhere. Flash is a known security vulnerability (no not FUD). You should all WANT Flash to die. That's a good thing. I really don't think that if everyone piles on to using the ESR release that XP/Vista support will be extended. I think Mozilla states that as a goodwill gesture.

Security minded folks will want to take advantage of sandboxing and new technologies. I would also think that browser developers would want to start merging code between desktop and mobile versions, so that development time and costs are halved, no? Nobody in the biz world is rushing to preserve XP.

Numerous web browsers have already, but not Firefox. To this day, Mozilla's latest software can work with your decade-old PC.

However, even that team has its limits -- it's support for XP and Vista starting next year. Mozilla will start by moving users on these operating systems to the Extended Support Release in March 2017, limiting them to feature updates that can be 'several cycles' behind the curve. And while the company plans to unveil a final support end date in the middle of that year, it'll effectively cut the cord in September, when it stops delivering security updates. This doesn't mean that Firefox will stop working on XP or Vista in September, of course. But when security flaws are, it'll be impractical to keep using Firefox on those platforms when you could remain permanently vulnerable to exploits. There aren't likely to be many people who both run a 10-year-old operating system and care enough about their web experience to use a recent browser, so the impact may be limited.

However, it's still a big deal if you're stuck on a work PC or otherwise haven't had a chance to upgrade to a newer version of Windows. Like it or not, you'll probably have to consider a new OS (or a new PC) if you want to experience the modern internet next year.