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IE5
Security Hole Lets Snoopers Scoop Your Clipboard
Microsoft is denying that a major security hole discovered in
IE 5 is a problem - it's a feature of the software's security, according to the
company. The hole allows web servers to read whatever is in an IE 5 user's
clipboard cache, without their knowledge or consent. Microsoft software that
allows remote servers access to data on local machines without knowledge or
consent has of course been topical recently. The latest problem/feature has been
documented by http://www.sysopt.com here -
the page also has a little demo to prove it can be done. Reading the clipboard
can be done via a small piece of Java/ActiveX code, and remote servers can do
this essentially because IE 5's default installation has the security features
set to allow it. IE 5 includes an ActiveX control called the Dynamic HTML
Editing Component, which is intended to allow WYSIWYG editing capabilities to be
added to sites. This allows script on an HTML page to access a user's clipboard
(sorry, we're too dumb to understand why this should be helpful). If the Web
designer uses the vanilla HTML Edit Control, then the user gets a warning. But
if the "Safe" version is used, then it can just happen. According to sysopt.com, the fix is as follows: "In IE5,
go to Tools, Internet Options, Security, then click on the Custom Level button,
find the 'allow paste operations via script' option, and click on Prompt or
Disable, then click OK, and click Apply." That seems fairly plain sailing, but it's bizarre that the
default installation of IE 5 leaves something like this switched on. Microsoft
responded to the revelation of the security issue by pointing out that OEMs
could switch the setting off before distributing IE 5, and saying: "The
option is set to 'enable' by default to allow enhanced functionality."
Exactly what enhanced functionality can be achieved by leaving your clipboard
wide open to snoopers does not appear to have been made clear. Copyright (C)
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