Researchers say Web apps over Wi-Fi put data at risk
Users who access Google Inc.'s Gmail or the Facebook social-networking site over wi-fi could be putting their accounts at risk of being hijacked, according to research from Errata Security Inc., a computer security company.
It's not just those sites but any rich Web applications that exchange account information with users, including blogging sites such as Blogspot or even software-as-a-service offerings such as those of Salesforce.com Inc., that could pose a risk for users, according to a report by Errata CEO Robert Graham and Chief Technology Officer David Maynor.
Most Web sites use encryption when passwords are entered, but because of the expense, the rest of the information exchanged between a browser and a Web site is not encrypted, Graham and Maynor wrote in a paper presented at the Black Hat 2007 security conference in Las Vegas this week.
Using a packet sniffer, which can pick up data transferred between a wireless router and a computer, it's possible to collect cookie information while a user is accessing one of those sites over a wi-fi connection.
Cookies consist of bits of data sent to a browser by a Web site to remember certain information about users, such as when they last logged in. Included in the cookie can be a "session identifier," which is another bit of unique information generated when people log into their accounts.
By using a packer sniffer to collect cookie information and the session identifier and then importing that data into another Web browser, a hacker can get inside a person's account. The attacker may not, however, be able to change a person's password, since many Web 2.0 applications require a second log-in to change account information.
Nonetheless, a hacker could create blog postings, read e-mail or engage in other malicious activity. Meanwhile, the victim would be directed to a version of the Web page he intended to visit -- a practice Errata calls "sidejacking."
There is a remedy, however. "The consequence of this is that users should never use a wi-fi hot spot unless they are using VPN (virtual private networking) or SSL (secure sockets layer) to access their accounts," Graham and Maynor wrote.
Reproduced from an article published by Computerworld Inc
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