Latest Sneaky Web Attack: Hijacking Your Clipboard To Post Spammy Links
from the now-that's-creative dept
Spammers and scammers keep upping the game against security researchers, sometimes in creative ways. And, in fact, it would appear that the latest sneaky trick making the rounds is almost admirable in its sneakiness. For example, take a look at this latest hack, which hijacks your clipboard, and repeatedly places a link to a site for fake security software. The hijack takes place through flash advertisements (even those found on legit sites), which is all the more reason to use AdBlock or FlashBlock or NoScript or something to protect you. However, what it's banking on, is the fact that plenty of people quickly cut and paste links they want to send around or post in other blogs and forums. When done quickly, many people won't even notice that they're not pasting the link they thought they cut from elsewhere -- thus getting lots of folks to inadvertently spam links. This must be incredibly annoying for those who get hit with it, but that doesn't take away from the creativeness of the attack itself. Even security researchers, like Mikko Hypponen, are grudgingly tipping their hats on this hack: "It is a pretty clever technique. Our work would be so much easier if our enemy would be stupid."
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http://katedickman.com/2008/08/17/oh-my-word-a-new-way-to-spam-serp-spam/
... scary how many ways they can get you.
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js vulnerability
So, how did the brains at FF miss this Flash vulnerability?
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Re: js vulnerability
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what are these files everyone seems upset about?
It wanted me to download some .exe files, so, I did.
Now what?
They won't run on my PC when I click on them.
I don't understand.
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Re: what are these files everyone seems upset about?
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(For the record, I'm a user of Windows, Linux and Apple Mac, even at home. I'm platform-agnostic, I just use whatever is best for the job. I think anyone who gets involved in these OS pissing contests seriously needs to grow a pair.)
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Dysfunctional Relationship
I'll try not to be smug like Dave, but I've got a Windows Machine and a Linux machine on the same desk, with a KVM switch and so forth to tie them together, and I'm sort of gradually transitioning over to the Linux machine. On the Linux machine, (Gnome) Evince is a basically satisfactory Acrobat document reader. It doesn't do some of the advanced scripting features, but it seems to read essentially any real-world Acrobat document I try it on. Mozilla needs to come up with the funding to get Evince ported to Windows, and to bundle it into the various Windows Mozilla distributions. I understand that GNASH, the Free Software Foundation's replacement for Flash, is not as far along as Evince, and no doubt some additional work would be in order. People may still need to use Adobe products, but let this be reserved for the rare cases of files which will not run on Evince or GNASH, and let people choose to save the files and then run them, as a matter of calculated risk.
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Come again?
No, the better solution is for websites to quit carrying useless ads which open the vulnerability in the first place.
Hint.
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No Flash
Is there a rare YouTube video that I'd be inclined to view but can't? Sure. Is there an occassional website I'd like to visit but can't because it's Flash only? Sure. Those cases are rare though and rarer still are the instances where the desire has been more than a fleeting fancy and caused me to sit down at another pc.
What's not so rare are the hundreds of thousands of dollars that Flash only websites have lost because I turned to their competitors. What's not so rare are the security vulnerabilities that I don't have to fret about. What's exhiliratingly exceedingly abundant are all the Flash ads that never load to slow my browsing experience or annoy and distract me.
Flash is the tool of satan, umm marketing but they're one and the same, and no such tool will ever reside on my PC.
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Re: No Flash
Please come to my non-flash web site! I could use "hundreds of thousands of dollars"!
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nerds
This article blows this flaw way out of proportion. Adobe should fix it to make sure the user knows when they are adding something to their clipboard.
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old news
http://www.bindshell.net/tools/beef
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