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HTML Frames Considered Harmful

Posted by timothy on from the also-ugly dept.

DLWormwood writes "Secunia has recently issued yet another advisory about web browser vulnerabilities, this time concerning the use of frames in web pages. Originally discovered to be in Internet Explorer, the security experts apparently worked overtime just to make sure the same "flaw" is found in just about every other browser out there. Doesn't this notice simply complain about a specified design feature of frames? (Note their official "advice": "Do not visit or follow links from untrusted websites.")"

8 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. CSS by Joe+the+Lesser · · Score: 3, Informative

    My IT professors beat into my brain that all formatting that even remotely resembles frames should be done with CSS(Cascading Style Sheets) positioning.

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    1. Re:CSS by The+Mayor · · Score: 3, Informative

      In addition to using the tag, which is available only to IE users, you can also use tags and issuing requests to a hidden iframe that posts the results back to the parent window. Using the div tag approach, of course, still requires an iframe, but at least it's cross platform.

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      --Be human.
  2. Didn't work on me by MachDelta · · Score: 3, Informative

    Meh, didn't work on me. I've got Firefox set up to open links in new tabs, so all that happened was the supposed "frame" from Secunia appeared in its own tab. The only way for a link to open within an existing tab is if A) I tell it so, and B) it originates from the same tab. So nyeh!

    1. Re:Didn't work on me by TulioSerpio · · Score: 3, Informative

      The site says Firefox 0.9 is not affected.

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  3. Wasted time. by BrookHarty · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'm sitting here trying to get this to work on IE, Mozilla and Firefox then I read the bottom of the page.


    The following browsers are not affected:
    * Mozilla Firefox 0.9 for Windows
    * Mozilla Firefox 0.9.1 for Windows
    * Mozilla 1.7 for Windows
    * Mozilla 1.7 for Linux

    All my browsers are allready patched! Even IE was patched.

  4. IE with proper security settings not affected. by bentfork · · Score: 3, Informative
    This is the same problem that is being exploited by banner ads setting cookies across domains.

    If you go to security settings in IE ( I've checked IE 6.x ) click custom level, and set "Navigate sub-frames across different domains" to prompt. You will get a nice little pop up warning.

    Now I can visit unsafe websites like microsoft.con

  5. Fixed in Mozilla 1.7 and Firefox 0.9 by jesser · · Score: 5, Informative

    Lorenzo Colitti and I found the same hole several weeks ago, independently of Mark Laurence. I reported it to mozilla.org on June 11 and to Microsoft and Opera on June 16. I got different results from each browser maker:

    Mozilla (bugzilla.mozilla.org 246448) Fixed on June 14. Firefox 0.9 released with the fix June 14. Mozilla 1.7 released with the fix June 17. Opera (bugs.opera.com 145283) No response. Microsoft On June 21, I received an e-mail containing the following: "... is by design. To prevent this behavior, set the 'Navigate sub-frames across different domains' zone option to Prompt or disable in the Internet zone. We are trying to get this fixed in Longhorn ... on getting this blocking on by default in XP SP2 but blocking these types of navigations is an app compatibility issue on many sites." I usually don't get any response from Microsoft when I report security holes to them; I think I only got a response this time because I used my employer's premier support contract with Microsoft.

    Another cross-browser security hole I found (bugzilla.mozilla.org 162020) got similar responses from each browser maker: fixed in Mozilla 1.7 and Firefox 0.9; no response from Opera; confusing statement from Microsoft mentioning XP SP2. 162020 is an arbitrary code execution hole.

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  6. This may be exploited and is a real threat by aWalrus · · Score: 3, Informative

    Although it's true that this is "working as designed", it does present an interesting exploit scenario. Let's assume you visit evilguy's site, supposed to be a financial portal. From there, a list of links direct you to the (framed) pages of banks where you can run your operations.

    Now, evilguy's site has javascript code running that will detect when one of the interesting frames is available (frames that contain login info). It means that you're trying to log into your account at one of the bank sites. What it does is serve you a facsimile that looks exactly like the original login screen, except this one sends the info to evilguy's site.

    When your login info is in evilguy's database, he just sends it to the bank and replaces the frame again with the content the bank returned. Voila! Successfully executed framejacking to invisibly steal your login info.

    This might be serious.

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    Overcaffeinated. Angry geeks.