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Tool Turns Any JavaScript-Enabled Browser into a Malicious Drone
A new tool too dangerous to give away can turn any PC - Windows, Mac, Linux - or any device with a browser into a site attacker.
The tool, called Jikto, is a Web application scanner that searches for cross-site scripting vulnerabilities. Billy Hoffman, a security researcher with SPI Dynamics, demonstrated what the tool could do at the ShmooCon hacker convention March 24. Namely, Jikto, which is written in JavaScript, can surreptitiously latch onto a browser that has JavaScript enabled.
After silently inserting itself to run inside any browser - be it that of a PC, a cell phone - Jikto can then search sites for cross-site scripting vulnerabilities and report its findings to a third party without the user of the infected browser being aware.
It can also replicate itself onto sites containing cross-site scripting vulnerabilities and then spread via latching onto visiting browsers, Hoffman told eWEEK in an interview.
This is something that JavaScript wasn't supposed to be able to do, but unfortunately, Hoffman said, it can.
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A new tool too dangerous to give away can turn any PC - Windows, Mac, Linux - or any device with a browser into a site attacker.
The tool, called Jikto, is a Web application scanner that searches for cross-site scripting vulnerabilities. Billy Hoffman, a security researcher with SPI Dynamics, demonstrated what the tool could do at the ShmooCon hacker convention March 24. Namely, Jikto, which is written in JavaScript, can surreptitiously latch onto a browser that has JavaScript enabled.
After silently inserting itself to run inside any browser - be it that of a PC, a cell phone - Jikto can then search sites for cross-site scripting vulnerabilities and report its findings to a third party without the user of the infected browser being aware.
It can also replicate itself onto sites containing cross-site scripting vulnerabilities and then spread via latching onto visiting browsers, Hoffman told eWEEK in an interview.
This is something that JavaScript wasn't supposed to be able to do, but unfortunately, Hoffman said, it can.
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