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A Novel Technique for Defeating Virtual Keyboards - Exploiting Insecure Features of Modern Browsers

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Advances in Computing and Communications (ACC 2011)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 191))

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Abstract

Advancement in technology is a necessity of time, but as new techniques are introduced, new security vulnerabilities are discovered and exploited in practice. In this paper we are presenting a new approach to defeat virtual keyboards using a new method for capturing parts of a browser screen. The page rendered in the browser is captured by using the canvas element provided by HTML5. We have specified the technical details of how this functionality is exploited and created a malicious extension for Mozilla Firefox browser. This extension captures screenshots of web pages rendered in the browser and sends them to a remote server. In addition, we have suggested mitigation strategies to prevent misuse of such browser functionalities.

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References

  1. Banking Trojan Captures User’s Screen in Video Clip, Hispasec/VirusTotal (September 05, 2006), http://www.hispasec.com/laboratorio/banking_trojan_capture_video_clip.pdf

  2. New technique against virtual keyboards, Hispasec/VirusTotal, Hispasec / VirusTotal (September 26, 2006), http://www.hispasec.com/laboratorio/New_technique_against_virtual_keyboards.pdf

  3. Debasis Mohanty: Defeating Virtual Keyboard Protection, http://www.coffeeandsecurity.com/resources/papers/defeat-vk.pdf

  4. Cracking On-Screen Keyboards with Visual Keyloggers, http://mrooney.blogspot.com/2009/02/cracking-on-screen-keyboards-with.html

  5. Virtual Keyboard and the Fight Against Keyloggers, http://palisade.plynt.com/issues/2009Feb/fight-against-keyloggers/

  6. W32/Dumaru, http://www.mcafee.com/threat-intelligence/malware/default.aspx?id=100980

  7. Screenshot, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screenshot

  8. Trusteer Rapport, http://www.trusteer.com/product/trusteer-rapport

  9. SnoopFree Privacy Shield, http://www.snoopfree.com/

  10. HTML5 Canvas, http://diveintohtml5.org/canvas.html

  11. Canvas Tutorial, https://developer.mozilla.org/en/canvas_tutorial

  12. Basic Usage of Canvas Element, https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Canvas_tutorial/Basic_usage

  13. Drawing Graphics with Canvas, https://developer.mozilla.org/en/drawing_graphics_with_canvas

  14. HTMLCanvasElement, https://developer.mozilla.org/en/DOM/HTMLCanvasElement

  15. OnHacks Firefox Malware Tutorial, http://onhacks.org/lang/en/2009/02/11/firefox-malware-tutorial-1/

  16. nsIDOMHTMLCanvasElement interface, http://www.oxymoronical.com/experiments/xpcomref/applications/Firefox/3.5/interfaces/nsIDOMHTMLCanvasElement

  17. nsIDOMCanvasRenderingContext2D, https://developer.mozilla.org/en/XPCOM_Interface_Reference/nsIDOMCanvasRenderingContext2D

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© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Nadkarni, T.S., Mohandas, R., Pais, A.R. (2011). A Novel Technique for Defeating Virtual Keyboards - Exploiting Insecure Features of Modern Browsers. In: Abraham, A., Lloret Mauri, J., Buford, J.F., Suzuki, J., Thampi, S.M. (eds) Advances in Computing and Communications. ACC 2011. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 191. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-22714-1_71

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-22714-1_71

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-22713-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-22714-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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