IE and Firefox Share a Vulnerability

hcmtnbiker writes with news of a logic flaw shared by IE 7 and Firefox 2.0. IE 5.01, IE 6, and Firefox 1.5.0.9 are also affected. The flaw was discovered by Michal Zalewski, and is easily demonstrated on IE7 and Firefox. The vulnerability is not platform-specific, but these demonstrations are — they work only on Windows systems. (Microsoft says that IE7 on Vista is not vulnerable.) From the vulnerability description: "In all modern browsers, form fields (used to upload user-specified files to a remote server) enjoy some added protection meant to prevent scripts from arbitrarily choosing local files to be sent, and automatically submitting the form without user knowledge. For example, '.value' parameter cannot be set or changed, and any changes to .type reset the contents of the field... [in this attack] the keyboard input in unrelated locations can be selectively geared toward input fields by the attacker."

Comments

Doesn't work with Firefox 2.0.0.1 on Windows XP

[Anonymous Coward]

I tried with a limited user account, but of course boot.ini can only be read by administrators. Then I tried with an administrator user, and still boot.ini wasn't shown. Fud?

Also, there is no need to type all that jibberish about cheese. Just slowly type in:

C:\boot.ini

Type it too quick, and the javascript in the background won't be able to keep up with the rate of keystrokes you enter.

Re:IE7 Vista

[evilgrug]

It didn't protect IE on Vista for me. I created a dummy boot.ini and IE7 Vista happily spat it out.

Variation on an old bug

[jesser]

I'm not sure why this is getting press now, given that a very similar exploit has been known and public since October 2000 (bug 56236). It was even fixed on trunk in September 2005, but left unfixed on branch intentionally because we weren't confident we had the UI right.

Zalewski's version is bug 370092, and he was unhappy when I marked it as a duplicate of bug 56236.

Re:Offtopic rant

[julesh]

I abhor the use of the word "enjoy" in the media and by marketing people in particular. Form fields may *have* protection; they do not *enjoy* protection because they aren't fucking conscious. And nobody enjoys, say, the protection of car insurance. I don't sit at home feeling all warm and fuzzy because I've just taken out some policy.

Seeing this in tech news just shows how much this has spread. I no longer want to use the word enjoy at all because every time I hear it, I am reminded of this usage and feel a twinge of annoyance.

I want my English language back from these idiots!

Online Etymology Dictionary
enjoy
c.1380, [...] Sense of "have the use or benefit of" first recorded c.1430. [...]

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper (Link)

You'll have to go a long way back to claim this one.