Google vulnerabilities

Date: June 03, 2007
Source: The Inquirer
By: Dan Goodin

Google's desktop search application is vulnerable to an exploit that allows a determined attacker to remotely run most programs installed on a victim's machine. The flaw is one of at least four security holes to visit Google this past week, demonstrating that the search king, despite the god-like aura it enjoys for its pleasing software designs, remains a mere mortal in the security cosmos.

While difficult to exploit, the zero-day vulnerability highlights the inherent risks in linking PC software such as Google Desktop with online search and other types of web services. So says Robert Hansen, a security researcher, who has written a detailed demonstration of how the weakness can be abused. Another Google vulnerability exposed this week - which resides in the way Firefox updates Google Toolbar and many other types of add-on software - also demonstrates this risk.

Hansen's demo relies on a man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack. Here's how it works: While web surfing at a cybercafe, a victim using a fully-patched machine running Google Desktop performs a Google search. The MITM agent detects the query and injects two iframes, one linked to a malicious URL and the other that secretly follows the victim's cursor as it moves about on the browser page.

Voila: As the malicious search query loads, the attacker forces Google Desktop to load as well. By dint of the iframe secretly following the mouse, the victim unknowingly clicks on the Google Desktop query, allowing the attacker to run any application that has been indexed by the Google program.

At about the same time Thursday that Hansen was giving pen to his discovery, a separate researcher used an online forum maintained by Hansen to expose a nasty cross-site scripting (XSS) error in Gmail. The problem, which Hacker Webzine describes here, could have allowed an attacker to craft a URL to access or delete a Gmail user's messages. Google fixed this vuln within hours of publication of the post.
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