News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Google AdWords Exploit Seen in the Wild by syn0byte on Wednesday May 08, 2019 @12:41PM (#19860572)
Sounds reasonable only if the text is a URI handler format; http:// file:// ftp:// steam:// etc.

But then what about almost-uri text. www.yourbank.com without the https://. Or lookalikes "https:\\" or... what about proxies? does https://l33th4x.com?proxy=www.bank.com count if the text is www.bank.com?

Filtering crap like this sounds reasonable but very quickly becomes an exercise in what I call "Giving a mouse a cookie." Now you have a huge complex chunk of code to parse and filter URLs/URIs and every look-alike you can think of; Did you remember that automatic deserialization that kicked in when your values were sent to a callback?

2 days of work later, your new build has fancy-pants a tag filtering that contains and unknown number of bugs and phishers just register and use new domains that look kinda legit and follow your new text/link rules. www.security-wellsfargo-audit.com/login looks legit to the mark, your mail client allowed it so it must be OK.

Re:Google AdWords Exploit Seen in the Wild by Goronmon on Wednesday May 08, 2019 @02:45PM (#19861724)
Filtering crap like this sounds reasonable but very quickly becomes an exercise in what I call "Giving a mouse a cookie." Now you have a huge complex chunk of code to parse and filter URLs/URIs and every look-alike you can think of; Did you remember that automatic deserialization that kicked in when your values were sent to a callback?

This sounds an awful lot like how software development in general works...

Isn't all software just some version of "Giving a mouse a cookie."?

Re:Google AdWords Exploit Seen in the Wild by appleflaxen on Wednesday May 08, 2019 @12:46PM (#19860624)
uh... ok... I'll bite... why do you call it "giving a mouse a cookie"
Re:Google AdWords Exploit Seen in the Wild by jamescostian on Wednesday May 08, 2019 @12:57PM (#19860764)
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_You_Give_a_Mouse_a_Cookie

"If you give a mouse a cookie, he'll ask for a glass of milk"

"If you give a mouse a glass of milk, he'll ask for a straw"

And the story keeps going like that, with more and more requests coming in. It's almost like never-ending scope creep, except the book has an infinite loop in it.

Re:Google AdWords Exploit Seen in the Wild by duxup on Wednesday May 08, 2019 @02:13PM (#19861447)
There's also an animated series on Amazon now... my youngest loves it.
Re:Google AdWords Exploit Seen in the Wild by the_jeremy on Wednesday May 08, 2019 @12:54PM (#19860724)
Re:Google AdWords Exploit Seen in the Wild by smallbigfish on Wednesday May 08, 2019 @12:52PM (#19860703)
That filtering code should already be there in web app.