A security researcher has found a way hackers can make PCs of unsuspecting Web surfers do their dirty work, without having to actually commandeer the systems.
That's possible with a new security tool called Jikto. The tool is written in JavaScript and can make PCs of unknowing Web surfers hunt for flaws in Web sites, said Jikto creator Billy Hoffman, a researcher at Web security firm SPI Dynamics. Hoffman, who developed the tool as a way to advance Web security, plans to release Jikto publicly later this week at the ShmooCon hacker event in Washington, D.C.
"This is going to drastically change the scope of evil things you can do with JavaScript," Hoffman said. "Jikto turns any PC into my little drone. Your PC will start attacking Web sites on my behalf, and you're going to give me all the results."
With the advent of online applications, hackers have shown increased interest in breaching Web security. Though vulnerabilities such as cross-site scripting bugs and SQL injection flaws have been around for years, such security problems are increasingly being reported and exploited.
Jikto is a Web application vulnerability scanner. It can silently crawl and audit public Web sites, and then send the results to a third party, Hoffman said. Jikto can be embedded into an attacker's Web site or injected into trusted sites by exploiting a common Web security hole known as a cross-site scripting flaw, he said.
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ShmooCon begins tomorrow....and ends on March 25th.
The release of this tool might seem pretty grey, but the truth is...this type of stuff is already out there.
XSS Proxy, AttackAPI, Backframe, BeEF, etc.It might not be packaged in a way that script kiddes (or non-tech international crime lords) can use it...but it is out there.
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