All Browsers Potentially Threatened By Clickjacking
Technical news mags such as ZDnet report that clickjacking may be a serious threat that affects any Internet browser.
A Look at Clickjacking
In a nutshell, clickjacking is accomplished by a malicious page that hides behind a seemingly safe page. When you click an item on the supposedly safe page, your computer is clickjacked by malicious code which then hijacks your pc’s accessories or other components. This occurs without your knowledge.
Typically, clickjacking will affect webcams, but it can also hijack other areas of your computer. Your microphone or sound system can be exploited, for example, or your computer can be taken over in other ways.
Adobe’s Flash Player was especially vulnerable to clickjacking, but Adobe has come out with a fix to address the issue.
What Browsers are Safe?
Clickjacking is a cross-browser threat, meaning that the malicious code can affect Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome or any other Internet borwser. There is no quick fix, such as disabling javascript.
The only known solution is a “No Script” add-on that works with Firefox.
Problems with the Clickjacking Fix
After using No Script for a week or so, I disabled it because it made web surfing a chore. Every site that I visited was blocked to some degree or another because the site contained YouTube videos, ads or javascript coding. For instance, the following were all blocked by No Script:
- Google Analytics
- Pepperjam network
- Peelaway Ads
- Voxant’s newsroom
- Chitika
- and many, many more (see the partial list of affiliate programs and other utilities blocked by No Script).
There’s a little bit of good news for Google publishers and advertisers. Adsense is automatically whitelisted by the No Script add-on. Most of the others will need to be manually approved, and it is unlikely that the average Internet user will know that an ad is safe enough to whitelist.
If clickjacking is indeed a serious threat and script blocking solutions are the only way to fight back, then I can see online advertising taking a big hit. Even the big boys’ ads, such as those delivered by Adserver Plus, were blocked by the Firefox add-on.
Conclusion: Maybe the Threat is Overrated
My web browsing experience is back up to speed since I’ve disabled No Script and so far I haven’t been hit by any type of clickjacking activities. Perhaps the threat is not as serious as some would claim.
The NotGuru blog has posted some videos that show exactly how clickjacking works and how to install fixes.
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