Firefox will add a new drive-by-download protection

By -

 Firefox will block automatic downloads initiated from sandboxed iframes -- the technology usually used for web embeds.

Mozilla will add a new security feature to Firefox in October that will make it harder for malicious web pages to initiate automatic downloads and plant malware-laced files on a user's computer.


Called a drive-by download, this type of attack has been around for two decades and usually takes place when users visit a website that contains malicious code placed there by an attacker.

The role of the malicious code is to abuse legitimate features in browsers and web standards to initiate an automatic file download or download prompt, in the hopes of tricking the user into running a malicious file.

There are multiple forms of drive-by downloads, depending on the browser feature attackers decide to use.

Browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer have, across the years, gradually deployed various forms of protections against automatic drive-by downloads, but 100% protection can't be fully achieved because browser makers can't fully block legitimate web features and also because of the shifting landscape of web attacks, with attackers always finding a new hole to poke at.

The latest round of protections that browser makers have decided to ship against drive-by downloads targets a technology called "sandboxed iframes," which is often used to load ads and embeddable widgets (videos, music tracks, podcasts) on third-party sites.

The idea is that websites rarely initiate downloads via sandboxed iframes since most of these widgets are usually used to embed content.

Chrome was first to block downloads initiated from "sandboxed iframes" with the release of Chrome 73, in March 2019, and the option was removed completely in Chrome 83, in May 2020.

This week, Firefox announced similar plans. Starting with Firefox 82, scheduled for release next month, in October 2020, Firefox will block all file downloads that originate from a sandboxed iframe.

The only situations were downloads will be honored is if the website owner or the web widget provider has an "allow-download" flag on the iframe; however, most don't since this is a security risk and a reason why they use sandboxed iframes in the first, rather than classic iframes.

Browsers are complex piles of code, and this is a small update in the grand scheme of things, but this is usually how you build a secure product, reacting to threats as they come, and making tiny adjustments here and there, over time.

A similar feature was proposed to the Safari WebKit team, but no plans have been laid out yet for its implementation.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Hacker steals data of millions of Bulgarians, emails it to local media

By -
Image
  Source of the data breach appears to be the country's National Revenue Agency A mysterious hacker has stolen the personal details of millions of Bulgarians and has emailed download links to the stolen data to local news publications. The data's origin is believed to be the country's National Revenue Agency (NRA), a department of the Bulgarian Ministry of Finance. In a  message posted on its website  on Monday, the NRA said it was working with the Ministry of the Interior and the State Agency for National Security (SANS) to investigate the hack. "We are currently verifying whether the data is real," said the NRA. Hours after this article's publication, the Bulgarian Ministry of the Interior  confirmed the hack . HACKER STOLE 110 DATABASES, LEAKED 57 According to reports from local media [ 1 ,  2 ,  3 ,  4 ,  5 ], who received part of the data, the hacker said they stole the personal details of over five million Bulgarians, of the country's total ...
Read more

​Linux totally dominates supercomputers

By -
Image
It finally happened. Today, all 500 of the world's top 500 supercomputers are running Linux. Linux rules supercomputing. This day has been coming since 1998, when Linux first appeared on the TOP500 Supercomputer list . Today it finally happened:  All 500 of the world's fastest supercomputers are running Linux . The last two non-Linux systems, a pair of Chinese IBM POWER computers running AIX, dropped off the  November 2017 TOP500 Supercomputer list . Overall, China now leads the supercomputing race with 202 computers to the US' 144. China also leads the US in aggregate performance. China's supercomputers represent 35.4 percent of the Top500's flops, while the US trails with 29.6 percent. With an anti-science regime in charge of the government, America will only continue to see its technological lead decline. When the  first Top500 supercomputer list was compiled in June 1993 , Linux was barely more than a toy. It hadn't even adopted Tux as its masc...
Read more

Microsoft tries to stem its self-made collaboration-tool confusion

By -
Image
Microsoft is using this week's Ignite conference to try to help clarify its collaboration-tool strategy. Here's how SharePoint, Teams and Yammer figure in the mix. Choice is good. But too much choice, especially when it comes to collaboration tools, has been a problem for Microsoft. This isn't news to customers, partners or Microsoft execs themselves. But at the company's Ignite IT Pro conference in Orlando this week, Microsoft execs took a step to try to clarify the company's strategy and messaging in this area. Microsoft Office 365 Marketing chief Ron Markezich kicked off the conference this week with a slide entitled "Microsoft 365 Teamwork: Where to Start a Conversation." That slide attempts to do what  Microsoft initially attempted with a 60-plus-page whitepaper : Clarify which collaboration tools customers should use when. The slide, which features SharePoint -- and its files, sites and content storage at the center -- is broken down into t...
Read more