Digital Underground
July 29, 2009, 11:29 AM

New Flaw in Firefox Could Enable Phishing Attacks

There is a new vulnerability in Firefox that enables an attacker to open a new tab in a victim's browser with a spoofed URL. The vulnerability is found in all current versions of Firefox and Mozilla does not have a patch for the problem yet.

The vulnerability would be useful for attackers in a phishing attack, given the ability to spoof the URL in the new tab or window. From the Mozilla blog entry on the bug:

If a user visits a page hosting this malicious code, a new window or tab can be opened with a faked URL.  There is no way of determining if the URL is authentic.  This could result in the user disclosing confidential information to the malicious site, known as a phishing attack.

Mozilla said it is working on a fix for the problem, but did not disclose a time line for releasing a patch.

 

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Veteran security reporter Dennis Fisher writes the Digital Underground blog on Threatpost. He previously served as executive editor of the Security Media Group at TechTarget and news editor of eWeek magazine and has been covering security for nearly 10 years. On Digital Underground, Dennis delivers insightful analysis, fast-breaking industry news and in-depth features.
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