IE, Gmail bugs allow hijacking of accounts on public PCs
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Microsoft's IE (Internet Explorer) browser has an unpatched vulnerability that could let hackers hijack, then access, Google Gmail accounts, a California security company warned Monday.IE, said Santa Clara-based Cenzic in an alert issued Monday, contains an unspecified cached files bug that, when combined with a cross-site request forgery flaw in the Web-based e-mail service, exposes Gmail account sign-ons and lets others access those accounts and any messages or file attachments there.Although not a bug that can be leveraged remotely -- an attacker must have local, physical access to the PC -- as Cenzic pointed out in its alert, there are scenarios where that's not a limitation. "These vulnerabilities could be exploited such that all users of a shared computer who use Internet Explorer and share a user account -- a common practice at computer kiosks in a library or Internet cafe -- could be vulnerable," said Cenzic.Gmail contributes to the overall vulnerability because its URLs display attachments when viewed using the "View Source" command, the warning went on. IE, however, sports "improper use of caching directives [and] incorrect access checks on cached Internet Explorer files."Together, the bugs could conceivably let someone at a public PC hijack any Gmail log-on credentials that had been entered on the machine since the IE cache had last been purged. IE deletes the contents of its cache only as new files are added -- and the oldest are deleted -- or when the user explicitly instructs the browser to clear the cache using the "Delete Browsing History" command.Microsoft denied that IE even has a bug. "Microsoft has thoroughly investigated the claim and found that this is not a product vulnerability," said a company spokesman Tuesday morning. "In the scenario in question, an attacker would need authenticated access to the system in order to modify files located in the cache. With that level of access, an attacker could install malicious programs that would have more impact than the scenarios described."While true, that did not address Cenzic's scenario; by design, public PCs such as those in libraries, schools or Web cafes do not require authentication to access. Microsoft was not available for clarification.Google did not immediately respond to questions about Gmail's part in the threat
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A attack on Windows machines that uses Internet Explorer and a vulnerability in a RealPlayer ActiveX control is spreading in the wild, and researchers say the situation is urgent.
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New vulnerabilities include a critical flaw in Internet Explorer and a "major" bug in Firefox.
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People who use public or workplace computers for e-mail, instant messaging and Web searching have a new security risk to worry about: Google&#39;s free new tool that indexes a PC&#39;s contents for quickly finding data.
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Update to "critical" Internet Explorer patch repairs a serious security flaw introduced by the original version.
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MyPhish.com The latest versions of both Firefox and Internet Explorer are vulnerable to an unpatched flaw that allows hackers to snaffle users' login credentials via automated phishing attacks.â¦
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An unpatched IE security flaw can install malicious software via rigged Web sites, including porn sites.
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Secunia issued a warning that the so-called tabbed browsing function in many alternative Web browsers from Mozilla, Opera, Netscape, Avant, Camino and others leave users vulnerable to spoofed
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Take heart, Internet Explorer users. Now it appears that virtually every Internet browser program - not just yours - poses a security risk.
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Security flaws in browser Internet Explorer are being exploited by porn sites to hijack Windows PCs.
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Security researchers have found flaws in older versions of the Mozilla and Firefox browsers, and the Thunderbird e-mail client, that could allow an attacker to spy on or take over a user's system.
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A new flaw has been discovered in Microsoft&#39;s Internet Explorer browser that allows malicious users to create fake sites that could lead to new email phishing scams.
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A security issue has been discovered in a common feature included in several Web browsers, including Mozilla, Firefox, Opera, Konqueror and Camino.
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Ten security flaws found in Firefox browser, Thunderbird e-mail client.
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A bug in Microsoft's registration process for Windows Live ID may have allowed scammers to register false e-mail addresses and use them to deceive other users.
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(InfoWorld) - A critical bug in the Internet Explorer (IE) browser also affects users of the Outlook 2003 e-mail client, making it much more serious than previously thought. The vulnerability can be triggered when IE or Outlook 2003 processes Web-based graphics code written in the Vector Markup Language (VML). It wasÂ first reported Monday by researchers at Sunbelt Software Inc. Attackers have not yet begun exploiting the e-mail attack, but aÂ handful of Web sitesÂ now serve the code, and hackers have publicly posted software that exploits the vulnerability. Initially, researchers thought that only Internet Explorer was vulnerable to attacks that exploited this flaw, but Sunbelt has now concluded that Outlook 2003 users are also at risk. That's because researchers have discovered a way to execute malicious code without using scripting code, which would normally be blocked by Outlook. By embedding a machine-language "shellcode" program in the VML tags, researchers have been able run unauthorized software on systems running the latest version of Outlook 2003. This has raised concerns because it means that some victims could have their PCs compromised with little or no user action. To attack Internet Explorer, criminals would first need to trick users into visiting a malicious Web site. But with an Outlook attack, it becomes much easier to target a victim. "All you have to do is send an HTML e-mail and the user is hosed," said Eric Sites, Sunbelt's vice president of research and development. Researchers at VeriSign Inc's iDefense unit have also confirmed that some configurations of Outlook will launch the code with no user action, said Ken Dunham, the director of the iDefense Rapid Response Team. Users who have Outlook's Reading Pane enabled to read messages in HTML are particularly vulnerable to this attack, Dunham said. Outlook Express users do not appear to be at risk, said Sites. Microsoft is advising users who want to protect themselves to set Outlook to read e-mail messages in plain text format. Instructions describing how to do this can beÂ found here. Microsoft's advisory on the VML issue can beÂ found here. Sunbelt has posted aÂ workaround for the vulnerability. According to one researcher, Outlook 2003 should not be rendering VML code automatically, but the product appears to be vulnerable due to a second bug in Microsoft's software. "Some versions of Outlook will render VML despite the fact that they shouldn't," said Russ Cooper, a senior information security analyst with Cybertrust Inc. "We should be raking Microsoft over the coals for this." Sites agreed that "there seems to be a bug in the latest version of Outlook." Microsoft executives were not immediately available to comment for this story. Microsoft plans to patch the VML problem as part of its next set of security patches, due Oct. 10, but Sites believes that hackers may force the software vendor to rush out an early fix. "I think it will get bad enough that they will have to," he said. Â
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Google is working to fix a bug in the Google Toolbar that could allow criminals to steal data or install malicious software on a system, a security researcher warned Tuesday.The flaw lies in the mechanism Google Toolbar uses to add new buttons on the browser. Because the toolbar does not perform adequate checks when new buttons are being installed, a hacker could make his button appear as though it was being downloaded from a legitimate site when in fact it came from somewhere else. By spoofing the origin of the toolbar button, an attacker could download malicious files or launch a phishing attack against the victim, wrote security researcher Aviv Raff in a blog post on the issue.Raff has posted proof of concept code, showing how such an attack would work with the Internet Explorer browser. A Google spokeswoman confirmed Tuesday that the company is working to fix the problem.The attack requires many steps. First, the victim would have to be tricked into clicking on a Web link that would then pop up a window asking the user if he wants to install a custom button on his toolbar. Because of the flaw, this alert could look like it was downloading the button from a legitimate site, such as Google.com, even if it were not. Once the button was installed on the toolbar, the victim would then have to click on it and, finally, agree to download and run an executable file for the malicious software to be installed.Because the user would have to go through so many steps in order to fall victim to the attack, the bug isn&#39;t a critical one, said Marc Maiffret, an independent security researcher. &quot;While it is interesting, it&#39;s probably a low threat compared to other flaws out there,&quot; he said.Still, it was sloppy work on Google&#39;s part to miss such a simple attack, he said. &quot;They should definitely assess how it slipped through the cracks,&quot; he said.This is not the first obvious Google flaw that Raff has found. Last month, he showed how a simple Web programming error on the Google.com Web site could allow attackers to launch what&#39;s known as a cross-site scripting attack.Because Google&#39;s programmers didn&#39;t properly check the HTML generated by the Google search engine, Raff was able to create a specially crafted Google link that, when clicked by the victim, would trick the browser into running unauthorized scripting code. This type of link could be used to steal the victim&#39;s Google account or conduct phishing attacks, Raff saidThis error was fixed by Google just hours after Raff notified the company of the problem, but a demo of the flaw being exploited can be seen online.