Computers With Internet Explorer And Google Chrome Installed Are At Risk
Security problems surrounding protocol handling and Web browsers have surfaced again — this time with Google Chrome and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. The “high severity” vulnerability affects Google Chrome versions 1.0.154.55 and earlier.
According to an advisory from the Google Chrome team, there’s an error in handling URLs with the a chromehtml: protocol that could allow an attacker to run scripts of his choosing on any page or enumerate files on the local disk under certain conditions.
If a user has Google Chrome installed, visiting an attacker-controlled web page in Internet Explorer could have caused Google Chrome to launch, open multiple tabs, and load scripts that run after navigating to a URL of the attacker’s choice. It can be exploited by malicious hackers to launch universal cross-site scripting (UXSS) attacks without user interaction under certain conditions.
IBM’s Roi Saltzman, the researcher credited with finding and reporting the issue to Google, has released an advisory to explain the attack vectors and impact. He warns that the flaw opens the door to two major attack vectors:
Bypass the Same Origin Policy restrictions for any site (this has the same impact as Universal XSS)
Enumerate victim’s local files and directories
“It is important to note that the way Internet Explorer processes URL protocol handlers is a known Achilles’ heel and has been widely used previously to attack other various applications,” Saltzman said. Proof-of-concept code for this issue is publicly available.
Credit: ZDNet Security Blogs
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