A security loophole in Mozilla and Firefox browser could be used to spoof the URL displayed in the address bar, SSL certificate and status bar. The vulnerability also affects Opera and Konqueror and stems from a flawed IDN (International Domain Name) implementation within the browsers.
The bug could be exploited by registering domain names with certain international characters - which look like other commonly-used characters - in order to hoodwink users into believing they on a different, trusted site. As such, the bug creates a new wheeze for phishing attacks. For Germans to use national German characters in ".de" domains, for example, is one thing, but the use of national characters has been extended to the international domain space (.com, .net an .org) and extends the scope for confusion.
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The Register
Feb 8, 2005, 01:12 AM
