full-disclosure - [Full-Disc]: Xmas virus on the cards ?

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From: John.Airey at rnib.org.uk (John.Airey@...b.org.uk)
Subject: [Full-Disc]: Xmas virus on the cards ?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Anders [mailto:CNQQTROVMYSY@...mmotel.com]
> Sent: 18 December 2003 14:02
> To: full-disclosure@...ts.netsys.com
> Subject: Re: [Full-Disc]: [Full-Disclosure] Xmas virus on the cards ?
> 
> 
> Hi,
> 
> > I noticed this article at http://www.vnunet.com/News/1151553 and
> > it looks alarming - however did not find any more details. 
> 
> To me, it sounds like someone has misunderstood the "social
> engineering" of an URL that seems to lead to a picture...
> 
> http://www.somedomain.com/picture.jpg
> 
> Where "picture.jpg" is in fact a folder, not a file, so, a "normal"
> HTML page is sent to the browser instead.
> 
> Aka, nothing to care about or filter at all, except trying to keep
> your browser as safe as possible, to prevent exploits in the 
> HTML-page.
> 
> Best regards,
> Anders

Technically all requests for folders should end in /, so the above link
should be http://www.somedomain.com/picture.jpg/. For example, Apache will
give this:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
<html><head>
<title>301 Moved Permanently</title>
</head><body>
<h1>Moved Permanently</h1>
<p>The document has moved <a
href="http://www.somedomain.com/picture.jpg/">here</a>.</p><hr />
<address>Apache/2.0.40 Server at www.somedomain.com Port 80</address>
</body></html>

So the browser will then be redirected to the correct page, and for "ease of
use", it will not warn you. However, the security they apply to the new page
should be against the new link, not the name of the preceding page. Of
course, Microsoft have got this kind of thing wrong before. 

What is worse is that many browsers do not put the trailing slash into the
address bar to show you that you are looking at the default page in a folder
(eg index.html).

- 
John Airey, BSc (Jt Hons), CNA, RHCE
Internet systems support officer, ITCSD, Royal National Institute of the
Blind,
Bakewell Road, Peterborough PE2 6XU,
Tel.: +44 (0) 1733 375299 Fax: +44 (0) 1733 370848 John.Airey@...b.org.uk 

There is more historical evidence for the existence of Jesus Christ than for
either Henry VIII or Julius Caesar.

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