Protecting browsers from cross-origin CSS attacks

  • Authors:
  • Lin-Shung Huang;Zack Weinberg;Chris Evans;Collin Jackson

  • Affiliations:
  • Carnegie Mellon University, Mountain View, USA;Carnegie Mellon University, Mountain View, USA;Google, Mountain View, USA;Carnegie Mellon University, Mountain View, USA

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 17th ACM conference on Computer and communications security
  • Year:
  • 2010

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.00

Visualization

Abstract

Cross-origin CSS attacks use style sheet import to steal confidential information from a victim website, hijacking a user's existing authenticated session; existing XSS defenses are ineffective. We show how to conduct these attacks with any browser, even if JavaScript is disabled, and propose a client-side defense with little or no impact on the vast majority of web sites. We have implemented and deployed defenses in Firefox, Google Chrome, and Safari. Our defense proposal has also been adopted by Opera.