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Browser extension-based man-in-the-browser attacks against Ajax applications with countermeasures

Published: 22 June 2012 Publication History

Abstract

As the web pages today rely on Ajax and JavaScript, a larger attack surface becomes available. This paper presents in detail several different man-in-the-browser attacks against Ajax applications. We implemented browser extensions for Mozilla Firefox to demonstrate these attacks and their effectiveness. Some countermeasures to mitigate the problem are also considered. We conclude that man-in-the-browser attacks are a serious threat to online applications and there are only partial countermeasures to alleviate the problem.

References

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Di Paola S., Fedon G. Subverting Ajax. In Proceedings of 23rd CCC Conference, 2006.
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Dougan, T. & Curran K. Man in the Browser Attacks. International Journal of Ambient Computing and Intelligence, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 29--39, March 2012.
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Entrust (2010, Mar.). Defeating Man-in-the-Browser. How to Prevent the Latest Malware Attacks against Consumer & Corporate Banking. 2010. {Online}. Available: http://download.entrust.com/resources/download.cfm/24002/
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Gühring, P. (2006). Concepts against Man-in-the-Browser Attacks. {Online}. Available: http://www.cacert.at/svn/sourcerer/CAcert/SecureClient.pdf
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Odvarko, J. (2008). nsITraceableChannel, Intercept HTTP Traffic. {Online}. Available: http://www.softwareishard.com/blog/firebug/nsitraceablechannel-intercept-http-traffic/
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Paes de Barros, A. (2005). O futuro dos backdoors, o prior dos mundos. {Online}. Available: http://www.paesdebarros.com.br/backdoors.pdf
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RSA (2011). Making Sense of Man-in-the-Browser Attacks. Threat Analysis and Mitigation for Financial Institutions. {Online}. Available: http://www.rsa.com/products/consumer/whitepapers/10459_MITB_WP_0611.pdf
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SafeNet (2010). Man-in-the-Browser. Understanding Man-in-the-Browser Attacks and Addressing the Problem. {Online}. Available: http://ru.safenet-inc.com/uploadedFiles/About_SafeNet/Resource_Library/Resource_Items/White_Papers_-_SFDC_Protected_EDP/Man%20in%20the%20Browser%20Security%20Guide.pdf
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    cover image ACM Other conferences
    CompSysTech '12: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Computer Systems and Technologies
    June 2012
    440 pages
    ISBN:9781450311939
    DOI:10.1145/2383276
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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    Association for Computing Machinery

    New York, NY, United States

    Publication History

    Published: 22 June 2012

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    Author Tags

    1. Ajax
    2. browser extensions
    3. man-in-the-browser

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    Overall Acceptance Rate 241 of 492 submissions, 49%

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    • (2016)An Empirical Study of HTTP-based Financial BotnetsIEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing10.1109/TDSC.2014.238259013:2(236-251)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2016
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