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Submitted by: Bill Hickey
NCVA List Master
NRT-0031 Two FIREFOX FLAWS:
A security company has reported two new flaws in the Mozilla FIREFOX browser that may leave locally saved files vulnerable to outside attacks. Both flaws were announced by SecuriTeam, a division of Beyond Security. The first flaw lies in FIREFOX's pop-up blocker feature. The browser typically does not allow Web sites to access files that are stored locally, but this URL permission check is superceded when a FIREFOX user has turned off pop-up windows manually. As a result, an attacker could use this flaw to steal locally stored files and personal information that might be stored in them.
A possible scenario for such an attack would involve the user clicking on a malicious link that would furtively plant a target file equipped with an exploit code on the computer's hard drive. Then it would display a prompt asking the user to allow a pop-up to appear in order to play a video file or download. The attacker-supplied file would then be loaded thanks to the browser flaw, which could give the attacker local file read privileges.
It appears that this flaw may only apply to older versions of FIREFOX, prior to the current 2.0 release.
The second flaw concerns FIREFOX's phishing protection feature. With this vulnerability, an adept phisher could fool the browser into believing that a fraudulent site is actually secure by adding particular characters into the URL of its Web site. They said the phishing flaw did appear to apply to the current 2.0.0.1 version of FIREFOX.
(CNET News 07FEB07) (http://news.zdnet.com 07FEB07)
Last Modified: Sunday, 11-Feb-2007 18:46:24 EST