GMAIL HACKER BROWSER EXTENSION PLUS

GMAIL HACKER BROWSER EXTENSION PLUS

Sebastian has contacted Google regarding the vulnerability but tells me 'the report was closed as being intended behavior.' This would appear to be because Google sees the issue as being in the Adblock Plus extension, something Sebastian regards as an unfortunate conclusion. If you do use an alternative then ensure it is by someone who is highly trusted. 'A working exploit for Gmail has not been released because it would enable filter list publishers to read emails, reset passwords and hijack accounts for other services' he explains, all the while 'hiding the malicious activity from users.' These attacks would be difficult to detect as the rogue list operator can set a short expiration time for the malicious filter and then replace it with a non-harmful one again.Р”В®thical hacker John OpdenakkerР’В told me that he doesn't think this is such a trivial thing to exploit as 'the prerequisites for the attack to be successful are multi-fold.' Not least that 'the filter list maintainer must go rogue' and 'a JavaScript string must be loaded in a particular way.' Meanwhile, security analyst Mike ThompsonР’В adds that 'most users wouldn't be aware that they can manage additional filters and as such the risk is relatively low if the default settings are maintained.'Р”Р„s previously mentioned, if you stick to the default filter list then the risk of compromise is very low. However, Sebastian also told me that he could use the same technique against Gmail. Using Google Maps as an example, Sebastian was able to create a filter list with a rule that redirects the target request to Google's I'm Feeling Lucky search which in turn redirects the user to the payload page in this case just an alert. I contacted Sebastian earlier today and he explained that 'the vulnerability is present in several Google services because there is no restriction on the domains from which scripts are accepted, and the sites also host an open redirect.' While the Adblock Plus browser extension security issue has to be chained together with these vulnerabilities in the respective web services in order to produce a working exploit, the result can be pretty serious for the victim. Sebastian was able to find a number of these, including sites operated by Google, and used Google Maps as proof of concept for the exploit.

Although there are safeguards in place to prevent malicious exploitation, it is possible if the target site meets a number of technical criteria to do with redirects and how scripts are downloaded primarily. Rather than just block the content, sometimes the request can be redirected instead and that's where the $rewrite option comes in. These filter lists, maintained and operated by third party providers, determine what content is blocked when you load a web page into your browser. The exploit works thanks to support for the $rewrite filter option which is used to remove tracking data and block adverts by redirecting those requests. 'The feature is trivial to exploit in order to attack any sufficiently complex web service, including Google services, while attacks are difficult to detect and are deployable in all major browsers' Sebastian wrote.

Security researcher Armin SebastianР’В reportsР’В how Adblock Plus introduced a new filter option last year that enabled providers of those advert filtering lists, under certain circumstances, to execute arbitrary code.

Gmail hacker browser extension