Codezwiz >> Forums >> The Board >> Hotmail, Yahoo Users at Risk of PC Takeover

March 23, 2004
Hotmail, Yahoo Users at Risk of PC Takeover
By Ryan Naraine

A potentially serious security flaw found in Web-based e-mail services offered by Microsoft (Quote, Chart) and Yahoo (Quote, Chart) could put millions of PCs at risk of takeover, an Internet security research firm warned Tuesday.

Israel-based security consultants GreyMagic issued the advisory with a chilling warning that attackers could inject malicious code by simply sending an e-mail to an unsuspecting Hotmail or Yahoo user.

The vulnerability only affects Hotmail and Yahoo running on Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) browser.

"When the victim attempts to read this email, the code executes and may result in severe consequences," the company said. Successful exploit could lead to theft of a user's login and password, disclosure of the content of any e-mail in the mailbox and disclosure of all contacts within the address book.

Additionally, GreyMagic said the attacker could manipulate the system to automatically send e-mails from the mailbox and to exploit vulnerabilities in IE to access the user's file system and eventually take over his or her machine.

The company said Microsoft reacted to its warning with a fix for the flaw. However, GreyMagic said all attempts to contact Yahoo's security department failed, meaning that Yahoo's users are still vulnerable. Efforts by internetnews.com to contact Yahoo at press time were unsuccessful.

GreyMagic said that many other Web-based e-mail services may be vulnerable to the flaw, since it is a completely new way to embed script.

The company released a proof-of-concept demonstration with its advisory, noting that the vulnerability makes use of an IE technology called HTML+TIME (based on SMIL), which is meant to add timing and media synchronization support to HTML pages.

One of the features of HTML+TIME is the ability to manipulate any attribute on an element via special control elements. For example, GreyMagic explained, the element exposes the attributes "attributeName" and "to", which make it possible to inject ANY HTML content to the document when "attributeName" is set to "innerHTML", and "to" is set to any HTML the attacker would like to execute, including script.

im safe muhahahahaha

...... comp wont let me access any mail servers lol, also wont let me open my programs, but at least theres 1 upside to my probs, though i should be vulnerable again by weekend when comp will be fixed (hopefully)

Efforts by internetnews.com to contact Yahoo at press time were unsuccessful.

Well there's a familiar theme. It gives more credability that the servers at Yahoo are running the show after devouring the human staff.

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Only in IE? no other browser?
And in a mail program like Outlook or Outlook Express?

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I could have told those experts that Yahoo cannot be reached. Just try to contact them for an id that was cracked...

RedWolf111

LOL - that was a great response there Red - maybe you should send Kevin in to fix it!

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I agree with Tuffy....lets all give a big cheer for Kevin...."Gooooooooooooo Kevin"...lol