Why do browsers have so many possible exploits?

Posted by Beau Martínez on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Beau Martínez
Published on 2010-03-14T22:33:33Z Indexed on 2010/03/14 22:35 UTC
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browser

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security

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exploit

When browsing I am ocassionally given warnings about pages that host malware "that could damage my computer". I am seriously perplexed as to why, in 2010, browsers still have possible exploits and can be cracked.

My question is "Why?". I'm assuming it's because of the quick development that occured in the browser wars which were unsufficiently tested, but I'm unsure. Surely WebKit would have patched all the issues in KHTML, or Gecko sorted out the flaws in Netscape's engine, and the IE coders sorted through their codebase to eliminate possible flaws?

(Somewhat related: http://superuser.com/questions/117770/which-browser-is-the-most-secure-research-and-practically-based.)

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