Host and Application Security Lesson 20: How the Web Does not Work

Remind me…  Precisely how does the web work?

Web Vulns  This is host and application security, so we’re focusing on the host issues

Simple  Simple buffer overruns/security vulns in the browser or in its plugins  Determining the list of plugins is harder than it probably needs to be

Javascript  Pretty powerful language  History of different classes of vulnerabilites… perhaps most famous is cross site scripting

Java Applets  Tell me about Java Applets and their security model  Isn’t that good enough? Why? Why not?

ActiveX  “Safe for scripting”?  ActiveX: Pros and Cons?

Clickjacking  A really neat exploit – get the user to click on one thing when they think they are clicking on another  Example: a one click bank transfer  Cross-frame issues make life very interesting

To Do  Find and read the ACM Queue paper “Browser Security: Lessons from Google Chrome”  Write a demonstration of a cross site scripting attack. Do this in essay form, showing the code you would have on both ends and how it would work. What is the future for XSS attacks?