Spoofing bug found in IE 7

Security experts have found a weakness in Internet Explorer 7 that could help crooks mask phishing scams, the type of attack Microsoft designed the browser to thwart.

IE 7, released last week, allows a Web site to display a pop-up that can contain a spoofed Web address, security monitoring company Secunia said Wednesday. An attacker could exploit this weakness to trick people into believing they are on a trusted Web site when in fact they are viewing a malicious page, Secunia said in an alert.

"This makes it possible to only display a part of the address bar, which may trick users into performing certain unintended actions," Secunia said. The company has created a demonstration that shows a Microsoft Web address in the pop up window, but displays content from Secunia.

The problem lies in the way Web addresses are displayed in the IE 7 address bar, a Microsoft representative said in an e-mailed statement. An attacker could exploit the issue by tricking a user to click on a specially formatted link, the representative said.

The pop-up will block the left part of the Web address, Microsoft said. "Clicking in the browser window or in the address bar and scrolling within it will display the full URL, however," the company said. In case of the Secunia example, the true Secunia URL is revealed.

An attack won't work if a Web site is known to be part of a phishing scam, Microsoft said. The IE 7 phishing shield will identify such sites and warn the user, it said. Microsoft is not aware of any attacks that actually use the reported vulnerability, the company said.

IE 7 is the first major update to Microsoft's ubiquitous Web browser in five years. Security was the No. 1 investment for the update, Microsoft has said. The phishing protection has been a major focus for Microsoft, shielding against malicious Web sites designed to trick users into handing over their personal information.

The spoofing issue, rated "less critical" by Secunia, appears to be the first genuine, publicly disclosed flaw in the new Microsoft browser. An earlier problem, disclosed a day after the IE 7 release, lies in Outlook Express, not IE 7, Microsoft has said.

Microsoft will continue to look into the problem and may provide a browser patch to fix it, the company said. In addition, Microsoft chided the anonymous discloser of the flaw. The software maker prefers that security issues be disclosed privately so it can repair them before they get publicly known.

[ralfthedog]

Time to give up.

If someone is using IE they deserve to be scammed virus infected or what ever. It is not like Microsoft thanks the company's that find the flaws. Let Microsoft users rot.

[Leria]

Time to give microsoft a break

It's actually time to give microsoft a break. I mean, how many attacks will REALLY do something like this, where a link is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO long that you can't see all of it? Not many, I'd wager.

This isn't even really a security 'vulnerability', it's a problem with the browsers that extends to Firefox and Opera as well.

[guyfromtrinidad]

didn't happen with me

Tried it out using IE but didn't experience what was described. It took me to Microsoft but I got the Microsoft content, the exact same behavior happened in Firefox. Did this happen to anyone else? I'm not an IE fan but are we looking to hard for flaws?

[imacpwr]

Exactly why Microsoft can't provide proper security!

Quote: "Microsoft chided the anonymous discloser of the flaw.
The software maker prefers that security issues be disclosed
privately so it can repair them before they get publicly known."

Security Issues: Publicly unknown (the users), privately WELL
known (the hackers). Those wanting to do harm to your
computer have their own underground information network
where as the users are left waiting like sitting ducks while
Microsoft gets around to releasing fixes in their own sweet time.
Keep those anonymous disclosers coming, it's the only way to
force Microsoft to live up to their obligations.

[Hardrada]

Happens in ALL versions of Firefox too!

This is not limited to just IE 7, Firefox 1 ~ 2 are vulnerable as well. I have not tested on the other browsers out there

[Gasaraki]

Come On

Please... a popup that block part of the address but you can click on the address bar and the real address is still there? How is that a bug? That company is just looking for stuff to attack IE7. Last week, when this company found a 'bug' in IE7, it turned out to be a bug in Outlook Express and not even IE7.

[thedreaming]

No one is safe

It doesn't matter what browser you use, you can still be infected by a trojan, worm, spyware or a virus. You simply click on a link or run a program and bingo, you're infected.

It happened to someone that posted his story about it here at news.com He clicked on a link for a media player that thought was being used by myspace.com but it was a trojan. It filled his machine with spyware and made his life a living hell. He was using firefox at the time and that didn't protect him.

In the end, it doesn't matter which browser you use if you still click on the link or run the program. Don't be fooled, think before you click!

[ReVeLaTeD]

Maxthon's not affected.

At least mine isn't. It shows
http://secunia.com/result_22542/?  http://www.microsoft.com/

Which is weird since it's using the IE engine, but I think it's the way Maxthon does tabbed browsing.

[jeolmeun]

It's just word wrap? Goes away OnBlur?

If you click on the client (html rendered) area of the popup window, the "spoofed" address seems to go away and the beginning of the address is shown. You could also try clicking on combo box arrow to show the whole address or just taking away focus from the address bar.

Look like it's playing with the edit box's word wrapping to show the second line.

[gernblan]

You haven't seen anything yet!

I'm going to make sure I have plenty of popcorn on hand when Vista comes out, so that I can enjoy the buttery goodness of fresh popped popcorn while I watch all the reports of Vista also popping like popcorn.

Vista, the "Windows ME" of the NT code base. Mark my words.

[Jamie_Foster]

This time Secunia = BS

This is issue which is no big deal for the following 3 reasons:
1. On the pop-up all you have to is cliack the dropdown list and the entire true URL appears, not just the bit the Hacker wants you to see.
2. IE7 contains a quality phishing filter.
3. Anyone who enters financial info on a random popup is asking to be get ripped off.
This is not a critical bug where the hacker can take over your PC. It is a social engineering exploit. Those who use common sense will be safe.
One more thing, google "CA Antivirus Microsoft" and you can get a free 12 month sub to CA Anti-virus. Also turn on automatic updates and use the windows firewall if using XP. Finally don't run dodgy software (ie Kazaa), don't visit dodgy websites (ie porn, gambling etc} and protect your email account.