The Clickjack Fix and Its Side Effects
Written on November 12, 2008 – 4:46 pm | by Guru
Tech news sites such as ZDnet have reported that clickjacking is a potentially serious threat that can affect any browser.
Clickjacking in a Nutshell
In laymen’s terms, clickjacking happens when a malicious page is hiding behind what appears to be a safe webpage. When you click on an item, your computer is “clickjacked” by the malicious code, which then hijacks various components of your computer. This occurs without your knowledge.
Typically, webcams are hijacked, but the clickjacking code can affect other areas of your computer equipment. For example, your sound system or microphone can be exploited, or your computer can be taken over in other ways.
Adobe’s Flash Player was particularly vulnerable to clickjacking threats; however, Adobe has come out with a fix to address the issue.
What Browsers are Safe?
Clickjacking is a cross-browser malicious code, which affects virtually all Internet browsers. 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).
One of the few ad networks automatically whitelisted by the No Script add-on is Google’s Adsense. Most of the others have to be manually whitelisted. It is highly unlikely that the average Internet user will do so.
If clickjacking is as bad of a problem as some say it is and if No Script and similar “script blocking” solutions are the only ways to fight back, then online advertising could take a major 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 more overrated than it actually is.
The NotGuru blog has posted some videos that show exactly how clickjacking works and how to install fixes.
Tags: browser hijack, clickjacking, malware, NoScript, security
