You are here: silicon.com > Software > Security Strategy

Security Strategy

Yahoo! fixes webmail flaws

Malicious actions kept at bay...

By Robert Lemos

Published: 20 August 2004 08:35 BST

Yahoo! has fixed two flaws in its free email system that could have allowed a malicious user to read a victim's browser cookies and change the appearance of some pages.

A representative of the company said the flaws were fixed last month by making changes on the company's Yahoo! Mail servers.

A Yahoo! spokeswoman said: "We were alerted of it at the end of May, early June. There ended up being two variations of the issue: One which we could reproduce in a few days and the other which took a lot of effort to reproduce."

The vulnerabilities are of a type known as cross-site scripting flaws, which typically take advantage scripting languages and misconfigured web servers to launch attacks against a user's computer. The attacks typically redirect the user to another website, allow access to the user's cookies or, sometimes, allow the attacker to run code on the victim's computer.

Yahoo! fixed the flaws in its server code. No patch is required by the Yahoo! Mail users.

Robert Lemos writes for News.com

  1. Zones
  2. Management
  3. Networks
  4. Software
  5. IT Services
  6. Hardware
  1. Verticals
  2. Public Sector
  3. Financial Services
  4. Retail & Leisure

  • Jobs
Technical Consultant - London

Experience and proficiency in debugging web pages Proficiency with Fireworks, Photoshop, and Flash is a plus Experience or exposure to Web ...

Malware Research Project Manager

Advisable: public awards or reconnaissance earned for the discovery of security flaws in software or systems. Advisable, experience in scripting ...

Integration Test Engineer

A minimum of 2 years experience in either C or Java or Scripting languages (i.e.competent level). TCL, beanshell, Perl or other scripting languages ...

Agenda Setters 2008
Welcome to the ninth annual Agenda Setters poll – silicon.com's list of the top 50 most influential individuals in the technology and IT industries, from techies and CIOs to entrepreneurs and business leaders. Find out more in our latest special report.





Quick Sitemap Links: